The call came unexpectedly in late spring. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I didn't believe it. I was being invited to speak at "The Show." For those, like me, who enjoy floating in the rarified air of behavioral finance, "The Show" is the annual meeting of The Academy of Behavioral Finance and Economics. It's a gathering of mostly full-blown professors and post-doc researchers with a smattering of practitioners, who, again like me, fancy themselves as armchair academics. That I would be asked to present in one of the breakout sessions was an honor too good to be true. 

And when, some three months later, they failed to call back I thought it was too good to be true. But the call eventually did come, albeit a few short weeks before the date of the conclave in Chicago. With such short notice, I found all the usual $300 hotel rooms already booked. A quick internet search revealed a hotel only two blocks away with fourteen rooms available at a price nearly half that of the competition. It was only after I voraciously booked the room that I figured there must be a reason why this hotel had so many vacancies and was so much less expense. Another quick internet search uncovered the answer. This hotel was haunted.

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Christopher Carosa

Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).