What's the Point?

IF THERE’S MONEY TO BE MADE, Wall Street is relentless. What if it’s time-consuming, with no extra payoff? Don’t expect a whole lot of help.

That brings me to the obvious starting point for every financial decision: What’s the goal? Many financial advisors are happy if you just tick the appropriate boxes: retirement, college, house down payment, insurance, whatever.

But to make the right financial decisions—and create the motivation to save diligently—you need to dig deeper, fleshing out exactly what you want to achieve and why. That’s the subject of my latest column. The column followed what’s become the standard publication schedule for my articles: It was carried in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, and also posted to WSJ.com, a subscription website. But today—Monday—it was made available through MarketWatch.com, a free site.