OxfordPress.com

OXFORD — Watching herself on The Oprah Winfrey Show was "bizarre," said Miami University freshman Lexie Kadlec.

The 18-year-old West Chester, N.Y., resident was featured on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in a show that focused on teaching children financial stability.

Her father, Dan Kadlec, is a writer for "Money Magazine," and in September had written an article in the form of a letter to his daughter titled "A Letter to My College-Bound Daughter" with financial tips on issues such as credit cards, books, laundry, entertainment and even Starbucks.

"You are fortunate to have parents that can take care of your biggest bills — tuition, room and board, transportation home," the letter states. "But the rest, dear child, is up to you."

As her father sat in the studio in Chicago, she spoke with Winfrey through Skype from an off-campus apartment earlier on Wednesday.

She said her parents told her if she wanted to have extra money in college, "it had to come from me and not them."

So she worked over the summer as a swim instructor to earn spending money.

So far, she told Winfrey, she has been pleasantly surprised at how little money she has had to spend.

And, as her father suggested in his letter, she has been keeping the recipients from her expenditures, which she and her father will look over when she goes home.

Learning to live with limits "is the biggest lesson I have learned," she said. "If I don't limit myself now when I can, I won't be able to when it's necessary — when I am on my own, making my own living and my expenses will include necessary items such as a house, food and a car."

Kadlec's article in Money Magazine can be found at

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081022_tows_letter.