

The Financial Therapy Podcast - It's Not Just About The Money
Rick Kahler
Most financial experts focus solely on numbers, but Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT™, takes a deeper approach. With over 40 years of experience, Rick blends practical financial advice with powerful emotional insights to help you understand why you make the money decisions you do. Research shows that 90% of our financial choices are driven by emotions—not logic. Whether your habits seem irrational or confusing, Rick helps uncover the underlying beliefs and feelings influencing your behavior. It's about more than just building wealth; it’s about understanding the emotions that shape every financial decision.Tune in to The Financial Therapy Podcast to discover how better emotional awareness can lead to smarter financial choices.Explore more at thefinancialtherapypodcast.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 19, 2023 • 30min
#125 - 7 Critical Areas That Lead to Unethical Financial Decisions
You might think that you lack financial savvy and are doomed to make money mistakes. But even people who are good with money can slip up sometimes. One of the tricky things about poor financial choices is that they often go unnoticed or unacknowledged by the person who makes them. It might take a long time for them to realize the consequences of their actions, if they ever do. But when a bad financial choice crosses the line into something unethical or illegal, the stakes are much higher. It’s not just a money mistake anymore. It’s a life-altering decision that can have serious repercussions.A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Sep 12, 2023 • 30min
#124 How Fear and Anxiety Keeps You Poor and Others Rich
Vendors pushing investments like gold are selling more than gold, they are pushing fear, creating a sense of panic and anxiety within a person that they suggest can only be solved by buying gold. The problem is that they have a huge conflict of interest. If you don’t buy gold, they don’t eat. It’s in their interest that they motivate you to buy gold with any strategy, manipulation, exaggeration, or outright lie that they can. We take a look at history, debunk their myths, and explore the emotions beneath the money scripts that can keep us poor. A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Sep 5, 2023 • 28min
#123 Wondering About IFS, MDMA, Groups, and Transformation
Rick visits some notes he made in 2020 where he wondered about the possibilities of applying IFS, MDMA Assisted Therapy, and the use of groups to financial therapy. All of these are transformative in their own right, but what are the possibilities when combined with financial therapy? A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Aug 29, 2023 • 27min
#122 - Are Gambling, Gaming, and Hoarding Always a Problematic Behavior?
Gambling, gaming, and hoarding for many can be an enjoyable endeavor. For some, it can become impulsive, compulsive or part of an unhealthy cycle. Rick and Deb Kaplan explore what beliefs and behaviors one might consider to assess whether healthy behaviors are problematic, compulsive or addictive. Rick steps into the client’s seat for an impromptu session in the second half of the segment to answer his question; do I have a hoarding issue, or do I just like to collect objects of sentimental value?”A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Aug 22, 2023 • 30min
#121 - Winning the Lottery - What I Ought to Do vs. What I Do
What would you do with a million-dollar windfall? This question was the topic of a survey in a March 28, 2023, article by Jessica Whitehouse in onlinegambling.com, “This is how Americans would spend $1,000,000 in lottery winnings.” Before I read past the headline, I mentally answered, “Blow it!” However, 80% of the 500 respondents said they would do one of three things with the money: buy a house, invest it, or pay off debts. Maybe that was a sign that people are more practical and conservative than I was giving them credit for. But I wasn't convinced, so I dug a little deeper.A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Aug 15, 2023 • 28min
#120 - Money Scripts Myths That Won't Go Away!
“Rick, what is your money script?” I was a bit baffled and responded, “I have well over one hundred, I don’t have just one.” He responded, “No, there are only four and I was wondering which one is yours.” He clearly didn’t understand the concept of money scripts. In this episode we explore the origins of this myth and the myth that there is one superior money script to have.A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Aug 8, 2023 • 31min
#119 - One Woman's Journey to Financial Wellness
Join Rick for a conversation with Chaitali Shah, a financial coach with, Wealthron, Mumbai, India. Chaitali will talk about her transition from the finance industry where she has worked since the age of 21 and gained extensive experience in financial planning, investment management and taught financial economics, to becoming a pioneer in India in financial coaching. She shares a transformative event that came from attending Rick’s “Real Money” workshop. A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Aug 1, 2023 • 30min
#118 – Exploring the Psychology of Compulsive Financial Behaviors
Compulsive behaviors are often due to an individual’s need to self-medicate unresolved wounds. Deb Kaplan and Rick Kahler explore the psychology of compulsive financial behaviors through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS). IFS focuses on a person's internal “parts” and “Self.” Partners can apply IFS to understand themselves and heal their coupleship's money conflicts.A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Jul 25, 2023 • 27min
#117 – Non-Duality and Oversimplification
K.I.S.S., Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s a catchy phrase, but what does it mean? What does simple mean. Does it mean to make complex topics understandable, or not to make a simple communication overly complex, or not to oversimplify complex topics? Oliver Wendell Holmes explained oversimplification this way, “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.” How do our emotions play into creating simplicity that’s harmful financially?A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.

Jul 18, 2023 • 30min
#116 – Emotional Blocks in Long Term Care Planning
It doesn’t occur to most people to seriously consider the likelihood they may outlive their retirement income. It is often “blown off” with an attempt to laugh it off. It’s often one of those laughs that is more about anxiety that anything that’s actually funny. The greatest financial risk for depleting retirement resources is an unexpected and lengthy stay in a long-term health care facility, like a nursing home or an assisted living center. Common estimates say that about 70 percent of adults over 65 will need long term care. The current reality is that there are not enough units to take care of the demand and the care is prohibitively expensive for most people. The job will fall to family members, at a significant financial and emotional cost. A podcast that blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them.Rick Kahler, CFP®, CFT-I™, has helped people make better money decisions by integrating financial planning. He blends the nuts and bolts of financial advice with the emotions that drive making them and shares them on his financial therapy podcast.