40 Great Money Tips - Best Advice Ever

CNNMoney has posted a gallery of money tips from 40 "great minds", ranging from Derek Jeter to Tim Ferriss to Burton Malkiel. Each participant provided an anecdote about the best piece of financial advice they ever received.

Timothy Ferriss
Author, "The Four-Hour Workweek"

Professor Ed Zschau at Princeton University gave me a short but powerful piece of advice. I had volunteered for the second time to clean erasers and place name placards on desks before class to get to know him.

He said with a smile, "Don't get too good at the little things" and explained that if you excel at the menial tasks, those are the responsibilities people will associate you with and give you. Get noticed for doing things that help the big picture, not for fetching coffee, and your financial pictu

re will grow just as fast as your reputation.

I've listed some of the highlights below. Remember: this is the best advice given to these people. It's the financial advice they feel has made the biggest difference in their lives.

• Dean Kamen, Segway inventor: "Find work in something you love and it won't feel like work."
• Derek Jeter, New York Yankees shortstop: "Always know where your money is. Even if you have someone who handles your finances for you, you should be involved in the process."
• Whitney Tilson, manager of T2 Partners LLC: "Read all of Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway shareholder letters. That's all you need to know."
• Meir Statman, professor of finance at Santa Clara University: "Use money well, but do not waste it." Be frugal but not stingy. Money is there to do good things.
• Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray Love: "Borrowing money is like wetting your bed in the middle of the night. At first all you feel is warmth and release. But very, very quickly comes the awful, cold discomfort of reality."
• Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist: "Material stuff won't make you happy."
• John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group: "Whoever cultivates the Golden Mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace." In other words, seek the middle ground.
• Olivia S. Mitchell, director for the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research: "Save your money first and get used to living on what's left over."
• Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics: "Don't save too much." Take advantage of consumption smoothing. (I'm still not sure I agree with this advice; it relies too much on predicting the future.)