A Financial Early “Christmas Eve Carol” [Parts 1 and 2]

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Rick Kahler MS CFP®

http://www.KahlerFinancial.com

Rick Kahler MS CFPFor me, the Christmas season doesn’t seem complete without Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. I’ve long been captivated by the transformation of the cold-hearted and calculating Mr. Scrooge, the seemingly inherent goodness of Bob Cratchit, and the haunting visits of the Ghosts of Christmas.

As a student of Dickens’s fable, I’ve been amazed at the wisdom and universal truths contained in that seemingly simple story. I have discovered that Mr. Scrooge isn’t merely the villain he’s often made out to be, nor is Cratchit the straightforward hero.

It’s not uncommon for the average American to have a stressful, even adversarial relationship with money, especially since half of Americans have no savings or investments and live month to month. Stress over money is especially exacerbated during the Christmas season each year. Many Americans borrow heavily on credit cards for gifts and end up stressing for months afterward trying to pay the bill.

Financial Transformations

How ironic that what Dickens unveils in the short A Christmas Carol is a powerful process for financial transformation (or any desired transformation). Dickens gives us a four-step process that anyone can employ to change destructive financial behaviors.

A few years ago I co-authored a book, The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge that highlights the subtle wisdom of Dickens’s story as it pertains to transforming one’s behavior around finances. The story became the heart of a successful model employed by financial planners and therapists to help transform a person’s relationship with money.

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The Story

The first big event in the story is the visit to Scrooge by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge takes to heart Marley’s warning to change his ways, thereby becoming willing to consider changing. Psychologists would call this an intervention.

The first and most important step toward transformation needs to be a personal realization that something is amiss with your behavior and it’s you who wants to contemplate changing, as opposed to someone else insisting you ought to or should change. Meaningful and sustainable change comes only from within, not without. Blaming personal financial problems on family, employers, the wealthy, or the government just keeps a person stuck in delusion.

What is the key to developing an internal desire to change? Addiction recovery programs call this “hitting bottom.” I describe it as reaching a state of openness to accept the facts and circumstances as they are, not as you wish they were. It is becoming convinced that change is crucial and that you are passionately ready to take action to change.

On that Christmas Eve, inexplicably, Scrooge was finally ready consider the message his old friend Marley had tried to deliver to him on many Christmas Eves previously.

In the book Changing for Good, psychologist James O. Prochaska and his co-authors describe this as moving from the stage of pre-contemplation to contemplation. Scrooge was willing to consider that his firmly entrenched world view might be skewed and to consider seeing the facts for what they were, not as he assumed they were.

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We may not be misers like Scrooge, but when it comes to our beliefs around money, we have as many delusions as he did. A few of the more popular of these beliefs, or money scripts, are: “More money is the answer,” “The stock market is a gamble,” “I work hard so I deserve to spend money,” and, “If I work hard I will make money.”

Assessment

Becoming willing to consider change is half the battle to free ourselves from destructive financial behavior based on these delusions. But it is only half. Next time we will look at three additional steps to transformation.

Part 2: A Financial “Christmas Carol” [Part 2]

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Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

Comprehensive Financial Planning Strategies for Doctors and Advisors: Best Practices from Leading Consultants and Certified Medical Planners(TM)

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A Financial “Christmas Carol” [Part 2]

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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By Rick Kahler MS CFP® http://www.KahlerFinancial.com

Rick Kahler MS CFPPreviously, in Part 1, we discussed the most important step of changing a problematic financial behavior: becoming willing to admit that changing the behavior is important and to seriously contemplate the change. Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol took that step when he heeded a warning from the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Financial Transformations

The next step in the financial transformation process is probably the most difficult and requires the most courage. It is looking into the past to revisit the events in our lives where our strongly held delusions were formed. Scrooge resisted this step and tried his best to skip over it. Yet his guide, the Ghost of Christmas Past, gently turned him toward the past.

Bringing objectivity and understanding to entrenched financial delusions isn’t easy. Many people want to focus instead on obtaining more information on how to save, invest, or spend wisely. We try to jump into the present before visiting the past, which is typically the last thing we want to do.

Yet, what we need most for transformation is emotional intelligence, which cannot be learned academically or developed by oneself. It must be learned emotionally, experientially, and in community. Just as Scrooge found a guide in the Ghost of Christmas Past, people wanting to gain the emotional intelligence needed to change their financial behaviors require the assistance of a financial coach or therapist. This is a journey that cannot be taken alone.

The New Reality?

Once we have taken that difficult but transformational journey into the past, we are ready to become present and see reality with new clarity. While Scrooge was less resistant to looking at the present than the past, it was the one step that terrified him the most. Once emotional intelligence is gained, we must face replacing our faulty beliefs with accurate cognitive information. This is the place for learning about budgeting, debt reduction, investments, and other financial skills.

In Changing for Good, Dr. James O. Prochaska calls this the stage of preparation, where we begin to acquire necessary knowledge and take the necessary steps to get ready to act. Scrooge’s guide, the Ghost of Christmas Present, helped him negotiate the present and obtain this knowledge. Our real-world guides may include accountants, attorneys, financial planners, and educational books and workshops.

When we gain accurate financial knowledge, we are ready to look toward the future to see where our previous delusional decisions potentially were taking us. Like the vision that the Ghost of Christmas Future unveils before Scrooge, the scene is often harsh. However, because of our preparation, we have the capacity and tools to enter what Prochaska calls the action phase.

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Now we can begin to create a future that is consciously and deliberately planned. We can take control of our money rather than our money controlling us. Our guides can be financial advisors, financial planners, and financial mentors.

Many of us try to shortcut the transformation process by starting here, in the last step of looking toward the future. Sadly, without first taking the critical steps of viewing the past and learning the present, we often lose heart. This is why resolutions for financial change often fail, not because the goal is bad or unattainable, but because we are unprepared to go into action.

The end product of Scrooge’s difficult journey with the three Spirits was a transformed person, full of joy, generosity, and spirit. He experienced this transformation because he had the courage and conviction to start the process.

Assessment

It’s not possible to give the gift of a financial transformation. It is a gift that can only be received. This Christmas and New Year 2019, perhaps it’s time for you to receive yours.

Part 1: A Financial “Christmas Carol” [Part 1]

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

Comprehensive Financial Planning Strategies for Doctors and Advisors: Best Practices from Leading Consultants and Certified Medical Planners(TM)

Filed under: Ethics, Financial Planning | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »