By Professor Pennywise

Splayed across a rickety toboggan sled, you race downhill at an alarming rate toward a deep lake that is half-covered in ice, groaning under the weight of the strangers piled on top of you. That roughly approximates the awful feeling we all had—even those of us who do not invest much—in the midst of the steep stock market decline last year ago. Would the global economy crash through the ice?

As it happens, my stewardship of The Chronicle's Academic Assets column began at precisely that moment with an essay on "The Financial Crisis for Smarties." I vowed, as Pennywise, to help you "avoid pound foolishness" with a personal-finance column aiming at the issues specific to those working in higher education.

The panicky mood of that moment is not so distant, really, since we are all still nursing bruises from our dangerous downhill plunge, but it has since been replaced by a "new normal" of unemployment and stagnation. Fear of total collapse is receding, the word "depression" isn't bandied about as often, and yet Pennywise still believes that financial vigilance is warranted. A double dip—in which valuations of most asset classes would once again plummet—is not out of the question. These remain shaky times.

Some anecdotes: Pennywise's brother-in-law just lost his job when his company closed. Pennywise, meanwhile, has been trying to sell a beautiful house in excellent condition. In the months since he put it on the market—at a price identical to what he paid for it 10 years ago—it has been viewed by exactly two prospective buyers, neither of whom made an offer.

The confluence of a new year with continuing economic pain seems a fitting moment to take a crack at my mounting backlog of reader reactions, one year on.

The many e-mail messages you have sent lead me to believe that Academic Assets is reaching a wide, receptive, and mostly enthusiastic audience. Most of your comments relay that you get a lot out of the column—and some make a humanist positively blush. In response to my contrast of traditional pension plans with self-managed retirement options, a faculty member at a top business school wrote, "I am reasonably well versed in this stuff and still found it really helpful." A financial-sector professional, likewise, wrote to me, "Your bio states that you're a humanities professor—any background in finance?" A different sensation altogether overcame Pennywise when reading an e-mail message that an editor at the University of Chicago Press sent: "Any chance that you or someone at The Chronicle could do some real reporting on this?"

The sheer diversity of correspondents helps me imagine the capaciousness of the audience. I've heard from an adjunct in Connecticut, a Michigan community-college library director, and a former president of George Washington University. Mostly my mail comes from professors, but I've also received notes from a managing consultant for TIAA-CREF and a global-wealth-management adviser at Merrill Lynch.

I regret that I haven't been able to follow up on every reader suggestion. That is mainly a result of the sheer limitation of a schedule of one column a month. I can't accommodate every request, though I've given it the old college try, seeking out varied subjects, from loan repayment to flexible spending accounts to socially responsible investing. In my strategic advice, I've emphasized everything from keeping fees low to disciplined savings measures.

By far the highest level of reader response is to columns devoted to retirement planning, such as the importance of taking the employer match or the merits of asset diversification. My most popular column, indeed, was on TIAA-CREF's safety. It is obvious to me that retirement planning, and TIAA-CREF in particular, are urgent topics in many academics' lives. I've therefore made a New Year's resolution to carry through on my promise to write more about TIAA-CREF investments soon. But while retirement often occupies our greatest anxieties and hopes, it is merely the centerpiece in a holistic personal-finance project, which is why I also plan to keep dealing with the whole gamut, from insurance to taxes.

Often readers have shared stories containing gems of wisdom. Let me pass two of them on to others.

"One of the things I have learned over the years," one reader wrote to me, "is the 'itsy bitsy spider' approach. My wife has lupus, which is famous for occasional, sometimes very serious, flare-ups. This is not only a medical and emotional roller coaster, but it is a financial one, too. Since my parents survived the Great Depression, I was brought up to always live within my means, so this really drove me crazy. After many cycles, the thing I finally learned was that I have no control over what happens to our finances when my wife has a flare-up. I just try to be as responsible as I can and let whatever is going to be, happen. When things calm down, I know that I must work hard to get back to a better place financially."

Equally sage was a social-work professor in Pennsylvania who wrote: "Over the years, my wife and I accumulated more than $1-million in 403(b) and IRA accounts. Do not think that this is a lot of money. Most important to remember: If all of your assets are in defined-contribution type plans, there may come a period when return on assets can be as low as 2 percent after inflation. Note that 2 percent gets you $20,000 on $1-million in assets; your Social Security probably will be more than that if you worked regularly for 40-plus years. Also note, in today's market, a good part of it can be easily lost. Remember risk and reward, and understand that return of assets is more important than return on assets. ... Note that the middle class in the United States today is more fragile and at risk than in ordinary times. Even if you have tenure, your spouse may not, and your employer's financial viability may experience setbacks. Be careful how you spend."

With readers like those, who needs a columnist?

Plenty, it seems. Readers have often written me with expressions of confusion over what their instincts tell them and what they hear from financial advisers, family, friends, and the television. All I can say is that comprehending finances is a life process. You will make errors. You will learn to handle them better. Reading helps.

Pennywise has sought to champion the ordinary consumer and employee against those who would fleece them, so I was chagrined when my last column, on conference travel and credit cards, prompted a few readers to accuse me of shilling for the card companies. But since I have always recommended paying off balances in full every month and avoiding credit-card debt, my method—paying no annual fees or interest, and taking advantage of exceptional perks like 2-percent cash back—actually results in the card companies paying you.

My underlying outlook was more accurately perceived by a professor of accounting, taxation, and law at Fairleigh Dickinson University, who wrote to me, "Your articles are often informative and amusing, but alas, sometimes too informed by populism from ... Ralph Nader? The Nation?" Guilty as charged: I seek to help people achieve financial security, but eschew the culture of greed, speculation, and self-defeating trading costs fostered by magazines touting "The Top 10 Stocks to Buy Right Now!" That may seem anomalous in a column on money matters, but I think skepticism about what in the 19th century was called the Money Power has something to commend for it today. Watch your wallet.

Admirers and detractors alike have asked why I remain pseudonymous. First, to preserve independent judgment, I want to avoid financial-service providers lobbying me. Second, I believe it healthy to keep my primary scholarly identity distinct from this column, although I've never written a word I would mind being held accountable for should my real name be made known. Professor Pennywise is hardly in the same league as George Orwell, Dr. Seuss, Woody Allen, George Sand, Leon Trotsky, or Billie Holiday, but they all were pseudonyms, too, so roll with it.

Let me conclude with a reader query. A Texas instructor wonders, "What about second incomes for academics? What about online income? What are the trends?"

Superb questions, but since opportunities for second incomes vary so widely by field, I wish to canvass readers before answering. How do you increase income beyond your salary? What do you recommend or discourage? Write me at professorpennywise@yahoo.com and I will share your responses in a subsequent column.

Professor Pennywise is a professor in the humanities who has taught from the Pac-10 to the Big Ten. He is merely a frugal academic, not a financial professional. Questions, comments, and suggestions may be sent to professorpennywise@yahoo.com.