The First Rule of Finance is to live within your means by spending no more than 80% of your take-home pay. If you take home $100 per week, spend no more than $80.

But ever look at what people spend their money on? I have relatives and friends deeply in debt, spending $12 for every $10 they earn instead of the $8 you know they should be spending. When I see them, they’re proud of their new whatever. “What do you think of my new truck?” asked one from the driver’s seat. “Do you like my new shoes?” asked another on high heels. “Check out my new big screen.” said a third while holding the remote in his living room. We’ve all heard people fishing for compliments (称赞；赞扬) on their new toys.

Every one of them was proud of what they’d financed. They seem to have bought it for the purpose of being proud, of showing off, of keeping up with the Joneses. “Look at my new...?” is everybody’s favorite phrase, even when the object in question isn’t theirs at all and won’t be new when they’ve finally paid for it if they ever do.

They’re proud of being stupid. They think it’s cool to drive the financed car, wear the financed shoes, and watch the financed TV, but to smart people, whose opinions are the only ones we should respect, these people look dumb as rocks.

The Joneses, nine times out of 10, are financially stupid. That’s why they have all that stuff on borrowed money. Why try to copy them? Worse, why try to impress them? Copy and impress smart people, the ones who own their stuff. If you want to impress smart people, debt is the last way to go about it. Trying to impress a money-smart person by going into debt is like trying to impress Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps by drowning in a pool. Michael Phelps is impressed by good swimming and a money-smart person by good money management.

The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a blackboard is a thing of the past. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smart phone, writing by hand has become something of nostalgic (怀旧的) skill. However, while today’s educators are using more and more technology in their teaching, many believe basic handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful - both in school and in life.

Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says it’s important to continue teaching handwriting and help children acquire the skill of writing by hand.

Berninger and her colleagues conducted a study that looked at the ability of students to complete various writing tasks -- both on a computer and by hand. The study, published in 2009, found that when writing with a pen and paper, participants wrote longer essays and more complete sentences and had a faster word production rate.

In a more recent study, Berninger looked at what role spelling plays in a student’s writing skills and found that how well children spell is tied to know well they can write. “Spelling makes some of the thinking parts of the brain active which helps us access our vocabulary, word meaning and concepts. It is allowing our written language to connect with ideas.” Berninger said.

Spelling helps students translate ideas into words in their mind first and then to transcribe (转换) “those words in the mind written symbols on paper or keyboard and screen,” the study said. Seeing the words in “mind’s eye” helps children not only to turn their ideas into words, says Berninger, but also to spot (发现) spelling mistakes when they write the words down and to correct then over time.

“In our computer age, some people believe that we don’t have to teach spelling because we have spell checks,” she said. “But until a child has a functional spelling ability of about a fifth grade level, they won’t have the knowledge to choose the correct spelling among the options given by the computer.”

In December, after her third fall in a few months, Doris Carpenter was admitted to Rochdale infirmary（养老院）. Carpenter, 84, lives alone, but she is increasingly unsteady on her feet, and if she falls, she hasn’t the strength to get up again. Previously, a call to 111 would call nursing staff who could put her back into a chair, but it was increasingly clear she wasn’t coping, and needed more support.

This isn’t like any old hospital, however. Today Carpenter isn’t in bed but sitting in a chair, dressed in her own clothes, a fat Dan Brown book in front of her. “You don’t feel like you’re in hospital,” she says.

Two side rooms have been furnished with small groups of tables and chairs, with bright tablecloths. Those patients who are able can help themselves to food at mealtimes and sit with others to eat, or go to the library to select another page-turner. A physiotherapist helps Carpenter with her painful back, and is working to help improve her confidence on stairs.

Previously, an elderly person in Carpenter’s condition would most likely have ended up in an acute hospital ward(病房).

There, very frequently, people of her age would get stuck, and many would go downhill fast.

“They come into hospital, and our model in the NHS is to put them to bed,” says Steve Taylor, the divisional director for community services. “Put your pyjamas on, you stay in that bed, we will feed you and toilet you.”

Shockingly quickly, he says, patients can lose what abilities they previously had. “And then, when it comes time to discharge you, you can no longer walk.”

This is probably the biggest challenge facing the NHS – the problem of an older population, the long years of illness that many of us will face and a fragile social care system underpinning it all.