Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive.

While you're going through this process of trying to find the satisfaction in your work, pretend you feel satisfied. Tell yourself you had a good day. Walk through the corridors with a smile rather than a scowl. Your positive energy will radiate. If you act like you're having fun, you'll find you are having fun.

Debt certainly isn't always a bad thing. A mortgage can help you afford a home. Student loans can be a necessity in getting a good job. Both are investments worth making, and both come with fairly low interest rates.

One of my rules is: If it's good for the planet, it's usually good for your wallet.

You'll get the biggest bang for each buck by paying off the highest interest rate debt in your portfolio first, while making minimum payments on the remainder. It's called the avalanche method, and it gets you out of debt cheapest and fastest.

Once you're retired and are no longer counting on earned income to live on and supplement your nest egg, you're done with disability insurance. At that point, though, the need for long-term care insurance - which protects you from spending that nest egg too fast - takes over.

Every minute you spend looking through clutter, wondering where you put this or that, being unable to focus because you're not organized costs you: time you could have spent with family or friends, time you could have been productive around the house, time you could have been making money.

Many people focus on the 4 percent rule, which essentially says that as long as you withdraw no more than 4 percent from your retirement accounts each year, the money should last you 30 years.

When you're setting up a budget, a general rule is to start with your fixed expenses - your housing and insurance payments, and car payment, if you own one.

Knowing where you stand in your quest to accumulate enough money for retirement is an incredibly important part of the planning process.

You can refi your car loan just like you can refi your mortgage. It's even easier and less expensive. There's no appraisal process, and fees are minimal for a new car title. A couple of caveats: Most lenders require that the car be less than five years old and have a minimum loan balance of $7,500.

July is high burglary season because so many people leave town. To help avoid making that obvious, suspend your newspaper subscription and have your mail held. Another clear indication is if all your lights are off for an extended period. To fix that, you can buy a timer for about $30.

Do you have an emergency fund? If not, build one - aim for three months of expenses to start, then boost it to six. It will ease your anxiety and get you out of a potential jam.

Nontraditional students often have the misconception that aid is intended only for high school students entering college. Luckily, that's not the case.

Our culture highlights the desire to always have more, even when we should be grateful for what we have.

No one anticipates divorce when they're exchanging vows, and it can be devastating emotionally and financially. To ease the financial side of the blow, you need to maintain your financial identity in your relationship. That means having your own credit history - you need your own credit card - and your own savings and retirement accounts.

If salary is your most important consideration, make sure you don't take too much time off beyond the allotted 12-14 weeks of maternity leave - and certainly don't leave altogether.

I know it's exciting to get an item on sale. But if you're buying for the discounts and not because it's something you need or want - either for yourself or for a gift - you're going about things the wrong way. Think of it this way: Saving 30% is great, but if you didn't buy at all, you'd be saving 100%, which is even better.

When something you use again and again is on sale, take advantage. This strategy doesn't apply to perishable items, and you don't want to buy so much more than you need just to get a deal, but if you know you're going to use a product eventually, it pays to take advantage of the cheaper price.

Weak passwords are a crook's best friend. Make yours long and complex, and change them often - not just on your bank account but on your email and social media, too.

There are two things that you need to save for. First, you need an emergency cushion of no fewer than six months of living expenses. This needs to be cash in a liquid account where you can get at it in - yes - an emergency if you need it. In other words, money markets, not CDs. You also need to save for your future: that means retirement.

If you have had the same dishwasher for 10 years or more, don't bother repairing it. The average dishwasher is expected to last nine years, and you've most likely squeezed as much life out of it as you can.

If you're just starting out in the workforce, the very best thing you can do for yourself is to get started in your workplace retirement plan. Contribute enough to grab any matching dollars your employer is offering (a.k.a. the last free money on earth).

Your retirement comes before your children's tuition. That's because there's no financial aid for retirement, and there's still a good deal available for college.

I'm big on setting goals, but I also think that if you have too many lofty ambitions and set goals for everything, you can sabotage your efforts by overextending your brain.

Many of us, if pressed, would admit that we'd prefer a cash gift to another pair of pajamas or bestselling novel. But giving the green can make even the best of us uncomfortable - the etiquette is confusing, and those who relish picking out the perfect something can miss some of the fun.

By working toward a financial objective, you'll start to see the money add up for retirement or the credit card balance go down. But it doesn't have an immediate impact on your day-to-day life, and when it does - like when you're pinching pennies to save more - the immediate impact could feel negative.

Garnishments tend to happen when people hide from their debts and stop making even minimum payments. Eventually, creditors sell the debt to a collection agency.

Show your kids that needs and wants are two different things. The best way to teach our kids to be smart consumers - and savvy savers - is to model good behavior for them.

I love a hotel that offers Wi-Fi Internet access, especially if it's free. But I never access sensitive information, like my bank account or an online shopping site that stores my credit card information, on a public Wi-Fi connection.

Being charitable provides a boost to your psyche that is tough to replicate in any other way. But note that although any charity will happily take your money, you can give in other ways and still reap the same happiness reward. Volunteering and donating your old or unused belongings have the same result.

I've gotten emails from people who purchased items from an infomercial, only to find out that the shipping was more expensive than the item itself. The lesson: If you truly want to order something you see on TV, go online to the product's website and see if you can find out more information.

In money, and in life, you are very often your own worst enemy. You promise yourself you're going to diet, then eat not one or two French fries but a whole plate. You decide to really commit to saving for retirement, only to wind up with a new pair of shoes in your closet.

At the time of my second marriage, my husband was in his early 50s, I was in my mid-40s, and we each had two kids. We maintained our individual accounts and opened one for the house. We each kick the same percentage of our incomes into the house account and have a joint credit card. But we pay for our children separately.

Eliminating or substantially lowering just one major monthly expense can give you enough cushion to move into a more comfortable place financially.

It's not exactly a big surprise that women mature earlier than men do. As a result, they tend to display better judgment, particularly when it comes to money.

I've never been a fan of loans between relatives or friends. They can divide relationships.

No purchase is so urgent, no bargain so rare, that you don't have time to research it thoroughly, despite what they might have you believe. This applies, in particular, to infomercials that urge you to 'Call now, while supplies last,' or 'Call in the next 10 minutes for a free gift.'

Anticipating a boomerang child seems the odds-on thing to do. Think about furnishing - hello, sleeper sofa - with this in mind.

You may be basing a portion of your self-worth on your bank account without even realizing it. Try to pinpoint the activities and qualities that, free of charge, fulfill you.

Too often, we make budget cuts - then blow the savings. Instead, think about your financial picture. Do you have high-interest rate debt? Paying it off faster will save you a bundle.

If you live in a yard sale kind of neighborhood - in good weather, most neighborhoods are crawling with them on weekends - do a sweep to see what the competition is charging. No one is going to buy your $7 book if they can get it down the block for $1.

If you're closing in on age 62 and intend to apply for a former spouse's Social Security benefit, don't remarry. You have to be single at the time you apply.

If your appraisal comes back too low - you don't have at least 10% equity for a conforming loan or 20% for a jumbo loan - you might not be able to refinance at all, at least with a loan that's packaged and sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That means you may have to pay a much higher rate.

You have no control over the market. You can't predict where it will go, and you can't bring it back from the depths. What you can do is save more. Make sure you have cash on hand - an emergency fund of at least six months of expenses.

In a relationship where finances are shared, it's important that both people know what's going on. If one spouse likes being the family accountant, it's fine for that person to take the lead, but the other spouse shouldn't be in the dark.

You can cut the fat from your spending: Stop taking taxis, call your cable company and ask for the same deal new subscribers get, have dinner at home and then a drink out instead of a $100 meal with wine.

I give out similar advice all the time: Take a month to write down where your money is going. By the end, you'll have a road map that tells you where you can cut back.

It doesn't help to follow every rise and fall of your portfolio. It's better to tune out the day-to-day shifts, in fact. But getting a handle on the larger picture will make you feel more secure, and that goes a long way in calming your fear.

Whether it's fly-fishing, taking your camper to the Everglades, or just traveling, everyone has got a little retirement dream.