Darien Magazine Profiles Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino

Darien Magazine has an interesting

out on Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino, one of the most recognizable business news reporters on television. Gasparino formerly worked as a writer and reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek , and worked at CNBC prior to his current role as a senior correspondent with Fox Business Network. He is also a New York Times bestselling author. Below are some of the highlights from the piece.

The first six months were horrible – I hated it. I didn't like television and I hated driving out to New Jersey. But then I started getting into a rhythm and flow and I began to understand how news works today. It's different. It's instantaneous. It's writing and it's the confluence of all media. [It was at CNBC] that I developed this process – I'd break news on air, I'd write about it, and then Id' comment on it. And I could do it on three or four mediums.

The boxing may have helped me in journalism. After all, I was not the person people looked at and said, “That guy is going to be working at the Wall Street Journal. I went to Pace University in Pleasantville. I was at the student newspaper when the editor said, “I don't' think Charlie is smart enough to do news.” Because of my background, people downgraded me right off the bat. So part of my tenacity stems from having been told no. I worked my way up from a sportswriter who couldn't do news to editor of the paper. Now did I get that from boxing? Maybe. Or maybe it was because my parents didn't think I'd be very good at this.

I never would have moved out of New York City but my wife wanted to. It was after my first book, so I had a little money. We came to Rowayton in the middle of the real estate boom, in 2004. I thought, if I'm going to live outside Manhattan, I'm going to do it in a place that's close to the city, that's country and has a nice feel to it. And I'm not going to spend an arm and a leg. My wife said she had heard about this beautiful town and asked me what I knew about Connecticut. We came up and went to Rowayton Seafood and that basically sold me.

Very thrifty. I'm a good saver. As someone who covers Wall Street, I'm really scared of the stock market. I never invest in individual stocks – you never know when I might cover it.

Understanding conflicts of interest is key for any investor, whether it's a mortgage broker, a used-car salesman or Bernie Madoff. When it comes to Wall Street, it's as if people are afraid to ask questions. There's something about finance that makes people think the SEC is going to be watching them. The government is not watching. There's not enough of them to monitor everything, and they're not that smart, anyway.