Finally, Carret's minister told us how he was "carded" (asked to prove he was 65 years old) - when he was actually closer to 100 - on a visit to a movie theatre on a trip to England. His life was full of such anecdotes (which no one chuckled about either more often or more heartily than Phil himself) and remarkable accomplishments both.

     But most impressive to your editor, frankly, was his very deeply ingrained - almost selfless - integrity and candor. What you saw was what you got. And what we saw always was wisdom, intellectual honesty and a levelheaded, cheerful, positive attitude - grounded in genuine humility, generosity and a thoroughly uncommon common sense. Like he said in his forward to "A Money Mind at Ninety," "If I've contributed even an infinitesimal bit to the welfare of society, my life has not been in vain."

     But since Carret was never one to toot his own horn, you might never learn of his generosity. His book, however, offers a rare glimpse. He tells of volunteering to prepare the income taxes for his housekeeper and her husband. And to keep them from feeling obligated to pay him for his efforts or feel bad for not doing so, he told her: "I love making out income tax returns." As Carret confesses, "This was a little white lie."

     Incidentally, his generosity didn't stop with preparing her returns. Writes Carret, "Perhaps [her] disapproval of the welfare system colored her view of the income tax - whose exactions she bitterly resented. [But] this attitude gave me some amusement, since I not only prepared her tax returns but paid the taxes out of my own pocket...."

     Along those lines, fittingly, among his closest friends was the late, great Norman Vincent Peale and his wife, Ruth. In the introduction to The Money Mind at Ninety, Peale observes: "Those of us who have had the rare good fortune for a long continuing friendship with the author are well aware of the wisdom his mind produces. Much of it is dropped in casual conversation, but [only] upon later reflection [can one appreciate] the intellectual force and truth of his thinking.... Phil Carret is a person from whom we can learn much...."