Rick Kahler's Financial Awakenings

Last month, in a hotel gift shop in Athens, Greece, I started talking with the clerk about how expensive things were for Americans in light of the dollar’s plunge against world currencies. My visit to the corner Starbucks for a latte, bagel, and two morning papers had set me back $23. She remarked in her best English, “It’s so confusing, your currency. The U.S.

The authors of The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge, Ted Klontz, Brad Klontz, and Rick Kahler, were  featured on the Washington Post’s live web chat with Michelle Singletary, syndicated personal financial columnist for the Washington Post and radio correspondent for NPR.

This live chat with Michelle, Rick, Brad and Ted will took place on Thursday, December 20th at Noon EST. To view the web log

As a kid, I always wondered why Santa Claus never ate the cookies and milk we left for him. A few years ago, a physics teacher friend explained why. Here is a repeat of the column I wrote based on his information.

Tradition tells us Santa visits every child around the world on Christmas Eve. Now, understand that Santa’s Christmas Eve is 36 hours long.

The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge is a best seller at The Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO. And apparently, copies are difficult to find. A report on the store’s blog says that book requests have been ”eclectic, to say the least, but two books rose above the muck and were in heavy demand yesterday.

Last Thanksgiving our Eastern Mediterranean cruise was cancelled the night before we were to leave due to a case of the chicken pox.  We rescheduled the same trip for this Thanksgiving and crossed our fingers. At least we knew, if anything stopped us, it would not be the chicken pox.

 Kahler Financial Group office will be closed for business Monday, December 24, 2007, to let our staff celebrate Christmas with their friends and family. We will resume our regular business hours at 8 AM on Wednesday, December 26, 2007.  If you are aware of any special needs prior to next Wednesday, please give us a call or drop us an email prior to Friday, December 21st.

What is the most expensive single item on your list of Christmas spending? That special gift for your spouse? The latest electronic gizmo for your teenager? Your family’s holiday travel?

Or could it be something you didn’t even know you bought? For some Christmas shoppers, the most expensive holiday purchase could be interest.

Michelle Singletary, a noted financial columnist, featured The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge as her final “Color of Money Book Club” selection for the year. In her December 3rd column she recommended the book and wrote in some detail about money scripts.  Ms. Singletary’s syndicated column runs in 140 newspapers with a combined readership of over 4,000,000. Her mention of our book was enough to jump the title to Amazon.

In many columns over the years, I have mentioned how important it is for parents and children to talk about the parents’ estate plans and the provisions of their wills. Actually having such a conversation can be terribly difficult, whether you approach it as the parent or the child. Perhaps the following suggestions may be helpful.

1.

Is there a way that parents can give children money without ruining their lives?

That may seem to be a strange question. Most of us would assume the effect would be just the opposite, that a pile of cash would solve a bucket-load of problems. Yet the issue isn’t that simple. There are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about inheriting money.

First, receiving a lot of money can certainly have harmful consequences.