As everyone contemplates the wreckage of their retirement accounts, I figure it is as good a time as any to reflect on my financial problems. I have always been bad at money. While generally competent and highly functional, I am somehow terrified of anything to do with finances.

I would basically summarize my approach to all practical money matters as some combination of hope and avoidance. I think I learned what a 529 savings plan was when my daughter went to college and I realized that I didn’t have one.