Money. Purpose. Joy.

It's almost as uncomfortable to talk about death as it is to talk about money. Put the two together and now you've really got trouble. But a column in the Chicago Tribune dipped a toe in that water by stressing the importance of making sure the people we love will know how to deal with our finances after we're gone. Writer Humberto Cruz and his wife maintain a document with account numbers for their investments, contact information for their accountant and attorney, and the location of birth certificates, insurance policies, living wills, and such. Cruz recommends a free electronic resource from T. Rowe Price that can help with all of this. The Family Records Organizer can be ordered online here .

Matt's View

I'll never forget the dinner I had with my parents when they handed me an envelope containing all of the above-mentioned information. It was very uncomfortable. But years later when they passed away, I was thankful that they had kept their information so organized. Dealing with the grief of losing people we love is difficult enough without having to piece together the puzzle of their finances.

If you've been dismayed by the price of gasoline this summer, you may have been equally dismayed to discover that when you drive away from the station your tank isn't as full as you thought it would be. According to an article on SmartMoney's web site, the high price of gas is revealing a little known credit card company policy that limits how much can be charged at the pump. Visa and Discover limit pay-at-the-pump expenditures to $50--less than half of what it takes to fill up a Chevy Suburban. MasterCard has a $75 limit. American Express varies its limit by gas station.

The rules are in place as an added identity theft safeguard since paying at the pump does not require a customer signature. Some gas station chains relax the rules a bit. For example, Exxon/Mobil allows charges to go $25 above the credit card companies' limits.

Matt's View

The one way around the limits is to sign for your purchase inside the station.

Despite the high price of gas, most workers get to their job by car, and the vast majority do so alone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 88 percent of employed people travel to work by car, and of those, just 13 percent share the ride with others. As for other modes of transportation, Boston is the number one large city for walkers, with 13 percent hoofing it to and from their job, versus 2.5 percent nationally. Portland is tops for workers who ride their bikes to the office at 3.5 percent--8 times the national average.

Matt's View

I developed one of my closest friendships by commuting with someone I knew from church who happened to live close to where I was living at the time and who also worked close to where I worked. But that was then. Today I commute to the basement.

Do you drive to work alone? If so, is there someone you could share the ride with? You may just find that the benefits include more than saving on your transportation costs.

The relationship between money and happiness continues as a source of fascination. As reported in the New York Times, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University compared the attitudes and behaviors of two groups. One embraced "voluntary simplicity," which focuses less on materialistic goals and more on three main intrinsic goals: "Being connected to friends and family, exploring one's interests or skills, and 'making the world a better place.'" The other group consisted of "mainstream" Americans. Even though the simple living group's average income was significantly lower than the other group, they were found to be "much happier and satisfied with life."

Matt's View

Another researcher quoted in the article pointed out that when we focus on material goals, there's "no natural stopping point." There will always be a nicer house, a better car, and another new golf club that'll help us play more like Tiger.

A helpful step in making use of this research is not to focus on "less" (no one likes to cut back), but to focus on "more"--that is, more of what really does cause happiness, such as more time with friends and family and more time working at the things that make a positive difference in the world.