Valentine's Day is a long three months away, but what would you rather have: the American classic Hershey's Kiss or the Swedish treat, a Lindt chocolate truffle?

For my money, I'd rather have a chocolate truffle. But if price is an issue, then a Hershey's Kiss chocolate will still satisfy my sweet tooth.

But in an experiment on consumer psychology, a group called Research and Markets in Dublin, Ireland, found that more people wanted a free Kiss over a discounted truffle, but chose the truffle over the Kiss when the Hershey chocolate cost a penny and the Lindt truffle cost 14 cents. In other words, they took free stuff over a more costly item, but when both items cost some amount of money, even 1 cent vs. 14 cents, they picked the more expensive item.

Ever know someone who "has it all," then throws it away by doing something stupid or worse--something fatal? The most well-known examples are celebrities; musicians, entertainers, and athletes, semingly making all the money in the worls and then doing something self-destructive. Think of Brittany Spears, Michael Vick, Paris Hilton, and Wesley Snipes; all are in a self-destructive spiral of their own decisions.

While, hopefully, you are not having similar experiences, many people sabotage their success in more subtle ways. What about you for 2008? Are you in a self-sabotage mode? Are you short-circuiting your own success? Check out the warning signs.

Success saboteurs:

• Fail to place a premium on learning. They become content with what they know and are closed to new ideas and challenges. Because they do not commit to continuous learning, their world narrows as they age. A narrow perspective becomes rigid and stagnant leading to poor decision making. Successful people know that the more they learn, the more they realize that they don't know. They read a wide variety of books and periodicals and have an appreciation of history. A continuous education keeps you humble and curious.
• Give up too soon. If at first they don't succeed, they quit. Yet, often people quit when success is just around the corner. A little more perseverance and the goal could be reached. If you look at the histories of very successful people, it often includes many "failures" that were turned into learning opportunities. Several years ago, more than 20 editors turned down two unpublished authors for a nonfiction book project. Refusing to give up, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen eventually sold the book for a nominal advance to a small Florida publishing house. Chicken Soup for the Soul became an instant best-seller and has sold millions of copies. The difference between a writer and an author is that the author did not give up.

We New Jersey residents are awfully proud of leading the country in car insurance rates, property taxes and political corruption. Now no less of an august authority than the University of Cambridge claims that modern life has turned my fellow residents into balls of stress.

According to a press release issued by the U.K. university, "New Jersey is one of the highest-scoring states for "neuroticism"; a personality trait normally associated with anxiety, stress and impulsive behavior. So, instead of the Garden State, maybe we ought to refer to ourselves as the Woody Allen State. By that I mean the funny Woody of the 1970s and 1980s and not the weird, creepy guy we see today.

We New Jerseyeans have issues: a governor forced to resign after admitting that he had an affair with another man, a dentist who allegedly decided to dispose of his medical waste at sea so that it washed up on the Jersey Shore. Then there's the jokes. People think that most residents in my state are a cross between Tony Soprano, Bruce Springsteen and Fred Flintstone. Bedrock certainly was a prehistoric stand-in for Bayonne or maybe Jersey City.

Researchers at Cambridge -- led interestingly by a native of Louisiana -- tried to create a personality map of the United States. The point of this exercise escapes me. I mean, did you need a study to prove that people in the Northeast are more uptight that people in the Midwest. It's common sense, no. The Cambridge researchers insist that they are about more than perpetuating stereotypes.

"Obviously it's not as simple as saying that a person is guaranteed to be more anxious if they come from West Virginia or more religious because they happen to live in New Mexico; but we did find pretty clear signs that there are meaningful differences in the personalities of people living in different areas of the United States," said Dr. Jason Rentfrow, the lead researcher, in a press release.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that our country has a serious shopping problem: our national savings rate is below zero, most Americans carry balances on their credit cards, and we're running out of landfill space to dump the last generation of how video games.

If you often find yourself overspending, compulsive shopping therapist Dr. April Benson has a great list of 5 questions you should ask:

1. Why am I here?
2. How do I feel?
3. Do I need this?
4. What if I wait?
5. How will i pay for it?
6. Where will I put it?

Dr. Benson gives all of her clients a card with those questions to refer to whenever they're tempted to overspend. If you're looking to cut back on your shopping, write them on the back of card, stick it in your wallet, and see if it works for you!

In an entertaining column in the New York Times, M.P. Dunleavy describes her family's effort to "go medieval" on that last few thousand dollars worth of credit card debt accumulated prior to their marriage.

To help eliminate the last bit and break free from debt hell, the couple has temporarily suspended retirement savings. Was this a good decision? She's not really sure. The credit card debt only has an interest rate of 6% and given the tax deduction that comes from funding a traditional IRA, there's an argument to be made that she should have continued her retirement saving, even at the expense of paying off debt.

But that's all beside the point, according to Dunleavy: "There are a dozen ways to crunch the numbers, but the ultimate gain wasn't financial, it was peace of mind."

There's a good message here for financial decisions: ultimately, it's about improving your quality of life, and nothing is more important than peace of mind. If a financial move will make you feel secure and comfortable, it might be a good one: in spite of what any online calculator says.

Looking to avoid overpaying on trips to the mall? Don't shop when you're in a bad mood.

At least that's the conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Pittsburgh universities. In the study, participants who had just watched a sad movie clip were inclined to pay, on average, 4 times as much for an insulated water bottle as those who watched an emotionally neutral clip.

Harvard professor Jennifer Lerner told the Associated Press that "This is a phenomenon that occurs without awareness. This is really different from the idea of retail therapy, where people are feeling negative and want to cheer themselves up by shopping. People have no idea this is going on."

Interestingly, most participants insisted that they weren't basing their offer price on the movie clip they had just seen -- not surprising. Who in their right mind would pay more for a water bottle based on a video they just saw? But apparently that's exactly what they did.

I guess the lesson here is to avoid extravagant spending when you're in a bad mood. But if you're down in the dumps and a $3 water bottle might cheer you up, I say go for it.