Posted: 10:09 PM The first week of May was Teacher Appreciation Week. One that I was glad to have was Dan Tieman.

Posted: 9:41 PM Throw open the shade that covers my mind I'm going to touch I've got to believe The bell tolls for me I, I want to testify -Melissa Etheridge Maybe mistakes are what make our fate... without them what would shape our lives? -Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) in Sex and the City

Updated: 12:48 AM The Securities and Exchange Commission is receiving media kudos after filing a lawsuit that accuses Goldman Sachs of fraud. A Los Angeles Times headline trumpeted, "Goldman Sachs case could help Obama shift voter anger." A McClatchy news service headline blares, "Message to Wall Street: SEC is back on the job."

Updated: 12:55 AM I see people make the same mistakes over and over, particularly when handling money for children. A number of children inherit money or receive money from an injury or other legal settlement.

Updated: 12:57 AM Seth Godin, who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs be productive, says that business people never realize that with a little bit of push, they can move past a seeming dead end and reach business success.

Updated: 12:59 AM I grew up at a time when you couldn't buy alcohol on Sunday and it wasn't advertised on television at all. Other than horse racing, gambling was illegal.

Posted: 4:55 PM I've been making the final edits on my upcoming book, Big Money and Why People Blow It, and came across a fascinating statistic.

Posted: 6:55 PM I spent much of my childhood at race tracks. Usually not nice race tracks.

Posted: 11:21 PM Out of college, money spent See no future, pay no rent All the money's gone, nowhere to go The Beatles

Posted: 11:13 PM Take a good look around And if you're looking down Put a little love in your heart -Jackie DeShannon

Posted: 10:48 PM Seems like a lot of lottery winners want to tear up the ticket. Some don't verbalize the thought. They just run through the money as fast as they can.

Posted: 11:28 PM A New York Times/CBS News poll said that over the past year, half of Americans were spending less money and spent less time shopping than they did in the previous year.

Posted: 9:06 PM And the Christmas carols sounds like blues, But the choir is not to blame. - Jim Croce

Updated: 6:06 PM I recently found that families of military people pay regular postage and shipping costs when they mail packages to soldiers in a war zone.

Posted: 5:54 PM For the past couple of years, I have been working on putting together "The Don McNay show," a daily radio show that will lend itself to syndication.

Posted: 5:52 PM Words that Work

Posted: 10:47 AM There is one thing I would not want to be right now: an incumbent politician. From the President to the dog catcher, many in elective office are suffering from rapidly declining popularity. People are angry and broke.

Posted: 10:40 AM It seems like every family has one - - the Child Who Never Grew Up. They mooch off their parents well into their "adulthood." They frequently need to "borrow" money, with no intention of paying it back. They always have car problems, relationship problems, "bad luck" or other sob stories. All their problems have the same proposed solution: Money from mom and dad.

Posted: 8:58 AM Many of my columns are about people who make bad financial decisions. People who take out payday loans and run up debts on high-interest credit cards. People who play the lottery and gamble too much at casinos.

Updated: 8:27 AM For all my adult life, I've assisted trial attorneys with structured settlements. I've worked with big names in big cities but the best seem to come from small towns.

Posted: 6:04 PM Tom Leach, the voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, gave me a fascinating Sports Illustrated article entitled, How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke. To quote baseball legend Yogi Berra, it is “Déjà vu all over again.

Posted: 9:24 PM As a structured settlement consultant, I go to mediations and settlement conferences with people who anticipate receiving large sums of money. I ask every person the same question.

Posted: 4:50 PM CNBC superstar Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business News host Dave Ramsey and myself have one thing in common. None of us have credit cards.

Posted: 3:32 PM For the past decade, our leaders decided that the rules of economics didn’t apply. It got us into a financial crisis. Washington and Wall Street rewarded bad behavior instead of providing incentives for doing things right.

Updated: 3:31 PM When people tell me they want to start their own business, I ask them if they can really live without a regular income. I tell them to talk to their families and get their honest answers. I ask them if they could stand to go weeks or months without money coming in and how they would deal with it. They need to understand they are trading their steady paycheck for an “unsteady paycheck.”