Scott Burns' column was nationally syndicated in late 1980, making it one of the longest running syndicated features. It is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. It can be read on Money Central at MSN.com, one of the three largest financial Web sites. The combination of newspaper and online distribution makes Scott one of the five most widely read financial writers in America.

Burns' career as a newspaper columnist began at the Boston Herald in 1977 where he was also the financial editor. He retired from the Dallas Morning News in 2006 after 22 years as its personal finance columnist but has yet to spend a single day as retiree. Instead, he started AssetBuilder, an internet-based registered investment adviser that provides risk-measured portfolios with industry challenging pricing. He says it's fun to actually manage money as well as write about it. He uses a disciplined index-fund based approach.

Burns' articles have appeared in a variety of national and regional magazines. He has also published three books: Squeeze It Till The Eagle Grins (1972), Home, Inc., The Hidden Wealth and Power of the American Household (1975) and The Coming Generational Storm (2004) co-authored with Boston University economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff. The book was endorsed by four Nobel laureates and has been published in multiple translations. Spend Till The End, an innovative re-visioning of financial planning, will be published by Simon & Shuster in June of 2008, co-authored with economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff.

He also co-authored a policy research paper for the National Center for Policy Analysis, "Reinventing Retirement Income in America." The paper examines the problems of 401k plans and proposes a variety of reforms.

Other media experience includes radio, television, speaking engagements and seminars. His business experience includes work with a major management consulting firm. His corporate experience includes six years as a director (and three years as audit chairman) of a publicly traded manufacturing company.

Burns graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Humanities and Biology (1962). He also studied writing with poet Archibald MacLeish at Harvard.

His web site, www.scottburns.com, has been in operation since July 1996. It offers an archive of columns and special collections as well forums for reader questions. The site also includes regular updates of features such as his signature Couch Potato Building Block Portfolios.