GEORGE CHAMBERLIN

Today is the occasion when fathers are honored -- maybe recognized is a better word -- for being, well, a father.

Being a parent doesn't come with a handbook, so most of us learn our responsibilities the hard way, by trial and error. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For the most part, I think dads -- like moms -- do the best they can.

Because I write and report on financial matters, people assume that I have all the answers about how to teach your kids about financial issues. My kids have made all the mistakes that I did when I was their age, and hopefully they will learn from their experiences.

The problem most parents have with their kids is communicating about money matters. Baby boomers haven't been the best role models for fiscal responsibility. So, like sex, money talks are often taboo in some households.

A few years ago, I came across an interesting memo that one parent wrote to his daughter about investing. Arthur Zeikel was a top executive at Merrill Lynch in the 1990s. I suppose that as a Wall Street insider he was busy managing multimillion dollar portfolios for his clients and maybe didn't have the time to deal with his daughter one-on-one.

So, he dictated a memo.

Much of the advice to his daughter, Jill, was typical boilerplate. For instance, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Diversify. Asset allocation determines the rate of return. Stocks beat bonds over time."

And, "Spend interest, never principal. If at all possible, take out less than comes in. Then, a portfolio grows in value and lasts forever. The other way around, it can be diminished quite rapidly."

But Zeikel did pass along a few pearls of wisdom that dads of any era can pass along to their sons and daughters.

I liked, "Watch out for fads. Hula hoops and bowling alleys (among others) didn't last. There are no permanent shortages or oversupplies. Every trend creates its own countervailing force. Expect the unexpected."

Zeikel wrote the memo to his daughter in 1995 and his comments about fads proved to be accurate when the tech stock bubble exploded a few years later.

"Act. Make decisions. No amount of information can remove all uncertainty. Have confidence in your moves. Better to be approximately right than precisely wrong," wrote Zeikel.

That advice, of course, goes well beyond dollars and cents issues. It's interesting how some 14 years later how much information we have at our fingertips.

And, one final piece of advice seems so timely in the world today. "Remember the value of common sense. No system works all the time. History is a guide, not a template."

George Chamberlin is a financial journalist. He also appears on NBC 7/39. Contact him at georgeccsd@yahoo.com.