Bankrate: Do you take an active role in investing your money?
Carl Hiaasen: Yes. I'm very conservative. When there has been a point in your life that you haven't had any money, you are very careful with it, and I am. You look for the balanced portfolio and all that stuff that kind of bores me to even ruminate about. But if you're a responsible parent and adult, you do it. With a 4-year-old, a 13-year-old stepson and a wife and two grandchildren, I have a lot more that I think about now than I did when I was younger and had more limited responsibilities. But I don't read The Wall Street Journal every day and I don't study the stock market. I don't buy or sell or day trade; that scares the hell out of me.
Lesson learned:
Even if you don't care about financial matters, you have a responsibility to your family to pay attention to them.
