My parents' financial wisdom would not have staved off the nation's economic storm, but it might have helped me hedge my bets. Suddenly, the low-yield, low-risk treasury bills that they purchased through the years look much better than, say, the once high-yielding stock in Lehman Brothers. But I'm a baby boomer, a product of the narcissistic "age of desire." Delayed gratification is anathema to me; I want quick returns. Get me a house, flip it, take the equity out. Repeat.

My financial bible was the Sharper Image catalogue, not Ben Franklin's almanac. My financial guru growing up was the hamburger-addicted Wimpy, who told Popeye time and again, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

"When I go to Africa sometimes, I'll come upon a place that has a total cash economy," he said. "You don't buy a car on credit; you save up until you can buy it outright. You don't build a house until you have the cash to pay for it. You can build it in stages, one room at a time, but you have to pay as you go. Of course, nobody wants to go back to something like that, but if our economy is going to start expanding again, we'll need to find a happier medium between using cash and relying on credit."