“If Momma Dont Laugh It Aint Funny” wasn't the theme of Monday's “Mornings UnPHILtered” show, but the author of that book was the first guest. Host Phil Boyum welcomed Lucy Adams, who will speak inside the Statesboro Regional Library tonight at 7 p.m., as part of Meet the Author series.
    In addition to being an author, Adams is a teacher, and has four children.
    Adams said most of the book comes from personal family experiences. She will talk about the publishing process and what happened as she worked to get her book printed. In fact, Adams said she was a high school literary magazine editor, but didn't start writing seriously until after the birth of her fourth child.
    She said after harassing her local paper's editor endlessly, he eventually agreed to publish a column every other week. Not long thereafter, she was asked to make it a weekly column.
    Adams shared how she got the title for the book: One morning her son asked for another biscuit, her husband buttered one and threw it across the table at him, hitting him in the chest. As it slid down the boy's shirt onto his pants, he looked at Adam's and, trying hard not to laugh, said: “Your mommas not laughing so it must not be funny.”
    Adams shared how many of her stories are recorded on the spot on whatever is handy, be it a grocery list as she pushed the cart down the isles or a scrap of paper as she waited on her husband at a department store. Her second book, due in the spring, contains a response to a letter from a reader who hated a column she wrote about keeping a sense of humor when things go totally wrong.
    Boyum's second guest on Mornings unPHILtered was William H. Wells. Wells is the chairman of the Department of Finance and Quantitative Analysis in Georgia Southern's College of Business Administration.
    Wells, an associate professor at the college, came on to talk about planning ahead for your financial future. Wells spoke of the difference of a pension and a 401-K Plan.
    Wells said that a pension is a defined benefit plan that comes from years accrued with a company, and has nothing to do with an individual's financial decisions. A pension plan is based on employees paying enough to pay for the company's obligations.
    With a 401-K plan, each employee has choices of funds you can invest in, and allows each employee to become involved in the direction their investment takes. With a cafeteria plan, the company offers a number of investment companies you can choose from.
    Wells said the most important thing for an investor to do is to maintain a diversification of investments. Wells said the younger you are, the more chances you can take. Conversely, you should choose the safer investment options as you approach retirement age, so that your risk of loss is much smaller.
    Investing in an index fund is a safe way to go, Wells said, as they are usually not of the high-risk variety. While the payoffs may not be as high as riskier investments, you can pretty much plan on a modest rise in a value.
    Some people, Wells said, have invested all of their money in betting on their company's future. Making a wrong choice there means you risk losing both your retirement funds and your investment funds at the same time. Keeping the two separate has proven to be a much safer way of investing through diversification.
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    "Mornings unPHILtered” airs live Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on statesboroherald.com and also simulcast on WWNS-AM 1240 on the radio. You also can listen anytime at BoroLive.com on statesboroherald.com