How long will this recession last and how we did we get here? To discuss those questions, Rick is offering another Town Hall webinar: The Recession: What’s Next and Money Mistakes to Avoid.

Join us to learn more about:

• Have we hit the market bottom
• How to avoid big money mistakes
• How to spend less, save more, earn more and reduce debt

Join us Thursday, April 9, 2009, at 4pm MDT for this informative webinar. Click here to register. You can also call 605-343-1400 to make your reservation. Anyone is welcome to attend!

Brent and Paul interviewed Rick on his new book Wired for Wealth on radio station KMSD, in Milbank, SD. Most of the conversation centered around the current economy. You can Click Here to listen to the interview.

At a recent quarterly review, one of my clients told me wryly, “Well, I’ve discovered the silver lining to all the losses in my investments. I just had my taxes done, and I’m going to get a refund. I haven’t done that in years.”

Investment losses offset capital gains, plus $3000 of ordinary income, and the losses carry over from year to year. As a result, many of those whose portfolios had heavy losses in 2008 will see lower taxes over the next few years.

A tax refund of a few thousand dollars, of course, doesn’t do much to offset portfolio losses of tens of thousands of dollars. Still, there’s something about the idea of getting a sizeable check that makes us feel as if we’re getting a windfall. It may feel like “found money” that we should be able to use any way we wish.

If you’ll be getting a tax refund this year, what should you do with it? Continue Reading »

If you are a financial planner, I would love to have your opinion. The survey will ask you about:

• Whether financial planning is a profession or industry
• Benefits you have received if you’ve engaged a financial planner
• Objections to having a financial planner
• Obstacles in planning for a planner

If you would take 10 minutes and complete this survey, I would really appreciate it. I’ll share the results when I’ve completed it. It is completely anonymous and I don’t sell anything but my opinion, so you won’t be put on any marketing list! Click here to take survey

I thought I would pass along a unique money workshop opportunity offered by Dave Jetson, of Jetson Counseling. Dave has offered this workshop for the past two years and has had great success with it. He created it using a model that I developed and tested several years ago in a couple of workshops with Dr. Ted Klontz. Dave took the model, expanded it, and built an entire three-day workshop around it. For those of you familiar with the Healing Money Issues Workshop that Dr. Klontz and I co-founded and facilitate, this one is very different.

The workshop will begin on Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 5:00 pm and will end on Sunday, May 3, 2009, at 3:00 PM. It will be held at Angostura Lake in Hot Springs, SD. The cost is $1,500 and includes food and lodging. For more information call Jetson Counseling at 718-5500.

A reader recently left this comment:

“I’ve read with interest your comments about “fee based” financial advisors. However, you have yet to address the issue that “fee based” relationships work only if your “nest egg” is $1,000,000 +. Those of us “smaller hitters” are overlooked by financial advisors who are compelled to work exclusively with accounts that will generate sufficient return on their time invested. I guess that is just a harsh reality of life.”

To correct one assumption this reader made, you don’t need a million dollars before a fee-only financial planner will take you on as a client. Many planners, including my office, serve clients whose net worth is considerably less than that. Continue Reading »

Every seat was full in the KFG dining room and almost as many clients called in or joined us on the web for our KFG Town Hall meeting. Rick addressed a host of questions, including:

• How is the current recession different from the others?
• What similarities are there with the Great Depression and will this be Great Depression II?
• Why has every usual indicator of a market bottom failed?
• What international banking crises similar to this crisis can we glean information from?
• What can we expect in the way of a recovery?
• How can a smart person like me avoid making a dumb money mistake?
• What are my investment options if I am still scared to death?
• How can we thrive during this downturn?

This was probably the most important teleclass we’ve ever done. Every KFG client needs to hear this information. If you missed it, don’t despair. KFG clients can watch the presentation by clicking here and entering your username and password. In the drop down menu select “Teleclass/Workshop” and it will be the first teleclass on the list. If you do not have a password or are having trouble with your current password, e-mail Lindsay (lindsay@kahlerfinancial.com) and she will assist you.

We urge you to watch this teleclass if you have any financial or economic concerns and especially before your next review.

Join us Thursday, April 2, 2009, at 4:00 pm MST for our cash flow workshop that might just help you during this economic crisis. Due to additional interest, we are offering it again.

So many people cringe at the thought of doing books and working out a budget. I would guess only 2% of the poplulation has any idea of what they spend and what they should be spending. Through the years I’ve tried about every system possible with clients, to no avail.

Well, last fall I came across the best, most simple, cash flow planning software I’ve ever seen. Darla and Lindsay, both accounting majors, are so excited about what this system can do for you, they convinced me to offer a special workshop to fully demonstrate its financial transformative possibilities!

Join us and find out how you can finally gain control of your money………and your life. Click here to register.

Bernie Madoff has to be a smart man. After all, he became chairman of a stock exchange and built an organization serving 13,000 people who collectively entrusted $65 billion dollars to him. Yet, as smart as he was, he did some really dumb things that will most likely land him in jail for a long time. Madoff recently confessed to massive fraud through a Ponzi scheme.

Why would a smart guy do something so stupid? In a recent talk, Patrick Kuhse, an Ethics Fellow with The Institute of Executive Education, Suffolk University Business School, outlined some answers. Like Madoff, Kuhse is a smart guy who did some dumb things in his life that landed him in jail for four years.

Kuhse says there are eight critical areas of thinking that underpin unethical behavior. Continue Reading »

Here is another interesting article from Kiplinger. Click here to read.