THIS newspaper will not normally print anonymous letters, and I certainly wouldn't, were such a letter to attack anyone other than me. But an anonymous reader this week raised an issue I would like to discuss, so I'll make an exception.

"The reason I'm sending you this e-mail," Anonymous started off, "is because I'm really amazed just how paddy some people in our world really are ?" (I don't know what "paddy" means in that context. Hoping it's not a racist jibe, we'll move along.) "Case in point: Your story you wrote in (January 13) about a lady contestant who couldn't figure out how many six-packs in 99 bottles, was pretty lame," the letter continued.

"Maybe the lady contestant should go back to school and take a course in mathematics; but as far as the answers go, does it really matter whether the answer should have said, 'less than 15' or 'fewer than 15'? Give me a break! Does it really make a difference? If so, who cares? I surely don't.

"I remember one time I wrote 9am and somebody corrected me and said, 'No, no, that's wrong, it should be written, 9 a.m.' Wow!!! Big deal. You're one of those type of people; everything has to be exact. You probably have a degree. Good for you.

"I'm guessing you're some kind of nerd or something ... and I'm also guessing you're probably broke (no money). That probably explains why you were hating on that lady contestant.

"You can't stand to think that somebody not as smart as you could make more money in one day than you can make in a whole year. It tears you up inside. A wasted degree, you're probably thinking to yourself. All I can say to you is, let it go, move on ? don't be mad, be glad."

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The rule in journalism is never to respond to readers' letters, but having broken one rule already, let's break another.

We'll dispose of me first.

I am not "one of those type of people". I am "one of that type of people". The agreement of words with each other is a rule I try not to break because I am the very definition of a nerd.

I do not have a degree, however. I am mostly self-taught. It's not that I didn't have an education; I had the finest available. But I didn't want an education and so spurned learning as a child. My exam results were so poor as to be laughable, certainly to the university admissions officers who all turned me down.

As a result, I was the only one in my class not to go to university, a statistical blot on the record of a fine school. I was proud of that fact for a while. How I thumbed my nose at the know-it-alls!

I then became, presumably, the only one in my class who learned the hard way that an education is the only thing that matters in life. A golden opportunity missed, is what I've spent the intervening years thinking. With an education, you have the chance of amounting to something. Without one, you almost certainly won't.

I'm not broke. I am one of the richest people in Bermuda, because I work hard enough to meet all my expenses and have a little left over for fun or savings. I usually choose the latter, being a nerd. Also, the woman on TV went home with nothing, due to her ignorance; I earn slightly more than that, despite my ignorance.

* * *

Now to the important stuff. Does accuracy really make a difference? Boy, does it. Imagine if the payroll person left a zero off your pay this week. It's only a zero. Who cares? You would.

Imagine if your landlord left a clause out of your lease, and you didn't check before you signed it, and were quite legally thrown into the street. Imagine if the bank quoted the wrong rate on your mortgage application and you decided that you couldn't afford what you actually can afford. Imagine if you made up some stuff on your resume and were caught.

Imagine if the person building your dream home didn't bother to see if the foundations were level. It might only be off by a small amount. It's only one word. What difference does it make? Your house might fall down, that's what.

A fellow I worked for once accused me of "always being right" and, by way of sub-text, thinking it mattered if I got it right. He certainly never cared about getting anything right, and took offence at my higher standard. The point is that my standard only applied to me.

In both our minds, he was free not to care. As an accountant and later a journalist, my job has always been to put the numbers or the words in columns and to have them be as close to absolutely right as I could make them.

Anything less would have made me a cheat, had I taken home the paycheque when I failed to do the work as well as I could.

If you don't make an accurate assessment of your financial needs, the chances are that you will end up in the wrong place. You might not retire in comfort; you might not be able to retire at all. You might not be able to afford your children's college fees.

The difference between saving $300 a month and $400 a month isn't much. Why bother to think about it?

The answer is that small differences, compounded, end up making big differences that change lives. Accuracy matters; never doubt it.

I value hugely communications from readers, for or against, but must insist that you sign them. The newspaper and I will always respect a request for anonymity, but I will not print letters disrespecting anyone other than myself.

More letters, good; fewer letters, bad. Less letters, like a sloppy attitude, wrong.