Fame & Fortune: Tommy Chong 'Money's just a flower that comes from planting a seed'
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Bankrate: I keep hearing different things about whether you're going to work with Cheech again. For a while there it seemed like you were ready to go.

Tommy Chong: We were ready to go. In fact, New Line gave us a deal, and then I got busted. They wanted to use that time to have (veteran screenwriter) Larry Charles write a movie script, which he did, but then New Line wasn't thrilled with the script. It would have cost $30 million, and they didn't want to go that route. So then I said, "Well, I'll write a script." That's what I wanted to do anyway. So I wrote a script, but then Cheech didn't like the script. Cheech doesn't want to do the old routine. He wants to move on. So he's going to move on without me. You can't teach this old dog any new tricks.

Bankrate: You said in the book that you don't gamble for money, because "to gamble for money is to mock God -- to be truly successful in life you must respect every penny in your pocket." Explain this, please.

Tommy Chong: Money is a reward for labor. You work; you get money. The Indians would trade things: Here, I've got this bow and arrow, and I need whatever you got. In the early days people would trade, then trade got too cumbersome. It started with shells in terms of money, and now it's currency. If you're connected, biblically ... I don't want to get too involved in this, but, you know the Ten Commandments? They're not suggestions, they're commandments. They say, this is what you must do in order to be happy, to live a full and prosperous life, and if you break any of these commandments you're going to suffer, because these are the rules of human life. When you gamble, you're thumbing your nose at all that -- you're trying to make something for nothing. When you work, the spirit, the higher self, creates situations for you to get a reward for your work. That's why, if you give your belongings away or give your money to charity, not with the intention of getting anything back but just for being generous, that kind of attitude is rewarded. When you gamble, you disrespect all that. You're spitting in the face of God. You're saying, "There's no God -- I want to win."

Bankrate: Does your spiritual approach come into play in your investments?

Tommy Chong: Absolutely. My wife does most of the investing, but she does it from the heart. We look for things we would like to happen -- very positive. We don't own any tobacco stock, for instance. Because it's not about money. Money's just the flower. You plant a seed and then the flower comes out, or you plant an apple tree and an apple comes out. That's your reward for that tree. To create more apples. That's the way I look at it. My dad was a gambler, by the way. That's why we lived with outdoor plumbing.

Bankrate: Did that have a big impact on what we're talking about here, then?

Tommy Chong: Giant impact.

Bankrate: I guess you're doing well now, though. You talk in the book about how your neighbors include Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Steven Spielberg and Nicole Kidman. Just how wealthy did Cheech and Chong make you?

Tommy Chong: There was an article about me in Entertainment Weekly, and it implied that after Cheech and Chong my career just took a nosedive. But Cheech and I have been getting checks from "Up in Smoke" for almost 30 years now. I live in this gorgeous house that my wife found. Everything doubles and triples in value that my wife touches, because her heart's in the right place. It's not about money. It's about being true to yourself.

Larry Getlen is a regular contributor to publications including the New York Post and Maxim. His next book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jokes," is out this month through Alpha/Penguin. Find him online at www.myspace.com/larrygetlen.