Petruno signs off at LAT, as expected

Tom Petruno, the longtime markets columnist for the Los Angeles Times, said back in September that he would be leaving the paper right around now to try out some other pursuits. His farewell column runs in the paper today and is online. He looks back a bit and shares some of the wisdom he's learned about money. Excerpt:

After 35 years in daily journalism, this is a farewell: I'm leaving The Times on Dec. 2 to see what else I might do with the rest of my working life.

I've had a dream of a career, which began in the newsroom of the student paper at the Ohio State University. The best of it has been working among the incredibly talented staffers of The Times since arriving here in 1990.

I'm stepping away at a time that is strikingly reminiscent of my first few years in the business of covering financial markets and the economy. That was 1979-82, in what was then considered the worst U.S. economy since the Great Depression.

Sound familiar?

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The best advice if you're young: Save as much as you can.

He gives a nice, meaty 16 bullet points of other advice. Petruno was a star of the Times' Business section back in the years when it had other stars, and he's only more important now. He stayed until December because of a personal request from the editors to please stick around a while longer.