An August 1, 2008 story by Laura Meckler in The Wall Street Journal included the following quote that got my blood boiling. She said:  “Beginning in 2017, the government will start paying out more in Social Security benefits than it collects in taxes and will have to start drawing on the trust fund, money stored in government bonds, to pay promised benefits.

It wasn’t a heart attack.

A few nights ago, I woke up about 3:00 a.m. because of pain in my chest. It hurt to breathe. Sitting up or shifting my position didn’t seem to help. Twisting from side to side made the pain worse. I couldn’t isolate the pain to a specific set of muscles, which seemed like a bad sign. I didn’t have pain or numbness in my arms, which seemed like a good sign.

I debated.

The good news? You exercise regularly, eat wisely, keep your weight down, wear your seatbelt, and don’t go bungee jumping or ride a motorcycle without a helmet. Your doctor says you’ll probably live to be 100.

The bad news? Your financial adviser says you’ll probably run out of money by the time you’re 90.

One of the current buzzwords in the financial industry is “longevity risk.

A client once told me a story about sitting in the waiting room of an oil-change shop for an hour and a half. During that time, perhaps 12 or 15 vehicles came through for oil changes. For everyone, an employee came in to tell the driver the windshield wipers needed replaced.

Legitimate? Possibly. Suspicious? Probably.

We’ve all been in such situations. The mechanic says the car needs a new transmission.

I am addicted to my Blackberry. It adds ease, connectivity, mobility, and convenience to my life. I could not accomplish the things I do, travel as much as I do, and be as efficient as I am without it.

So when an employee of the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure in Weston, Florida decided he or she needed my Blackberry worse than I did, it pretty much ruined the better part of my week.

I’ll guess KFG clients may get weary at times with our continual reminders that we need a copy of your most recent tax return. Some of you may even wonder why we need it. Here is what we are doing when we receive your return:

• We verify and/or collect information such as social security numbers, your children’s names and social security numbers, addresses, your accountant’s information, etc.

I have a simple question for you. What is money?

Not long ago I was asked that question by financial futurist Dick Wagner, CFP®. My response was, “energy.” Wrong. Dick responded, “Rick, you just described a function of money.

Have you ever dreamed of having a lot of money? Or wondered how you could get really rich? Probably you have; most of us have such dreams, at least from time to time.

As I emphasize in my work, there is much more to wealth than accumulating money. Having a good income, learning to live on less than you earn, and investing wisely are only part of wealth in the larger sense.

“It’s not shopping, it’s retail therapy.”

“I shop, therefore I am.”

“When I die, bury me at the mall, so my wife will come to visit me.”

Despite all the jokes like this, for too many people shopping is anything but a joking matter. This was the message of our March 27 teleclass with Dr. April Benson. She is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder.

The title of one of our recent teleclasses was “Spending Your Way to Wealth.” Our guest was Kathleen Fox (www.foxcraftinc.com), co-author with me of Conscious Finance.

Maybe we should have changed the title to “Not Spending: Your Way to Wealth.