Personal finance columnist Burns is retiring

Scott Burns, who has written a personal finance column for the past 40 years — including the past 30 years for the Dallas Morning News — is retiring.

Burns, an MIT graduate, had taken a buyout offer from the Morning News in 2006 but continued to write his column. He previously worked for the Boston Herald.

Burns writes, “This is my last column. It marks 40 years of deadlines, 36 in national syndication. That’s over 5,000 columns and more than 3.5 million words. It’s the equivalent of 44 books or six tomes the size of War and Peace.

“It has been a wonderful run, and I couldn’t have done it without you.

“That’s a literal statement, not a sentimental one. It was your gift of trust, your letting me be your itinerant learner and observer, that made the last 40 years possible.

“I’ve received many reader letters about the column. Some tell how you’ve achieved a secure retirement by following this column. One letter spoke for two generations of columns passed from father to son. It doesn’t get any better than that.

“Other letters urge me to keep on writing. But 40 years is a long time. I’ve begun to develop a 700-word mind, an ability to deal with anything as long as it is not shorter than — or longer than — the traditional length of a newspaper column.”

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