I like reminding my friends that their financial habits will result in their inevitable destitution. The trouble with such financial know-it-alls is that they say things like, "I don't have any plans, though. I haven't started saving for retirement, and I never invest. I buy what's cheap."I think we should be smarter about money than our parents, but not in such a way that we become hoarders. We need to learn the lessons of the past, but also help set our children up for success as they become their own adults. We can do that by showing them what can happen if you become part of the statistics. If we sit around and wait for these folks to make the right decisions for them, we'll be waiting a very long time. If we are able to look into their faces and say, "I'm sorry," we have been a great help in giving them the chance to make that right choice.

-A.I. on the complexities of Ray’s penny pinching