I grew up loving Bachman Turner Overdrive. David is not such a big fan but I can sit back and listen to BTO all day long.

My brother and I were talking about our retirement savings over the past weekend and we decided that we probably won't have enough to retire on when we reach the maximum age of 70. That is because we cannot agree on how much growth you should expect from your investments on a year-over-year basis. Should you project 8%? 10%? 2%?

Have you noticed lately how Google buries good, new content from smaller Websites in favor of old, spammy content from big sites like Huffington Post? Today I decided I would find some really great articles in spite of Google's deference to crap. It took a lot of work to get past their crummy results but here are some pretty good articles that don't just repeat what everyone else has said.

When it comes to making money, to creating wealth, which would you think is the better strategy: to save your money or to borrow it? I have heard many stories about how people saved their money for years and retired in comfort. I have also heard how some people went into debt and even lived off credit cards while they pursued their dreams and ultimately became rich and successful. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: that saving money pays off for some folks and borrowing it pays off for others.

I'm not sure online gambling is fully legal in the United States but I have seen gambling news headlines for stories about changes to state laws where online gambling will now be permitted in some areas. The US Congress outlawed most types of online gambling in 2006, crushing the gambling affiliate industry in this country. But many people continued to find ways to slip past the legal watchdogs and gamble online. You can even play free online slot games if you wish, although I guess those are gateway games.

I miss my old high school friends. I have never gone to a high school reunion. They happen so seldom it seems like something has always come up when one was scheduled. Every year around New Year's Day I get to thinking about my old buddies. We spent three years in high school hanging out, ogling girls, and trying to figure out what we were going to do with our spare time. We probably wasted more than we should have.

After all the partying and celebrating is done for the year, I look back and ask myself why I ate all that food! Cakes and pies and turkeys and mashed potatoes and ham and gravy -- they're all still with me, another year another 5 pounds.

I am not old. I do not feel old. But I feel like I missed a great opportunity when I was growing up. I never spent much time in the kitchen with my Mom and sister. But on weekends in the summer Dad would get out the grill and make hamburgers and hot dogs. On special days he grilled ribs or steaks. Once in a while he would grill a sausage or kielbasa. I can throw meat on a fire and wait until the right moment to flip it. But is that really cooking?

My son asked me a hard question to answer. He said, "Dad what is gambling?" I replied with, "Gambling is where you make a bet with someone." "But what is betting?" he asked.

Christmas came early this year. My cat decided our old sofa would make a great scratching post. By the time my wife and I found the damage it was too late. Reupholstering the old comfy couch would have cost too much to be worthwhile. The cushions were beginning to sag anyway. So off we went to the local array of furniture stores to find the perfect sofa. I thought that would make a great article so here are my thoughts.

Why do you think people are fascinated with space warfare? What would a space battle look like? I think Hollywood and other groups in the film industry have done space battles all wrong. Maybe the classic space battle stereotype is the Star Wars attack on the death star, where Luke Skywalker delivers the final shot just as the Death Star is about to destroy the moon where the rebel base is hidden.

Gourmet foods are, by definition, specialty foods. They are hard to find, expensive, hard to prepare, found only in certain areas, or otherwise separated from the highway of cheap, mass-produced food. Red Robin may sell "gourmet hamburgers" but they are still just hamburgers with fancy toppings. And I love Red Robin. I love their hamburgers. But hamburger no matter how you dress it up is just not gourmet food.