Sacramento Bee personal finance columnist ends run

Claudia Buck, the personal finance columnist for the Sacramento Bee for the past seven-plus years, is ending her column and joining the paper’s health reporting team.

Buck writes, “Launched during the recession, the column’s intent was to help readers navigate the shaky financial terrain. It dove into a wide range of consumer-friendly, money-related topics: how to pick a financial planner; how to fend off cyber-identity theft; how to thwart elderly financial abuse; how to teach your kids financial literacy; how to cope with rising college costs; how to avoid family disasters when writing a will or trust.

“We also tried some innovative tools, connecting readers with free online advice from our ‘Ask the Experts’ group of local financial and tax experts.

“For me, it has been an opportunity to learn something new every week. And it’s been a chance to interview some fascinating financial personalities, including antic TV money man Jim Cramer; Facebook COO and “Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg; notorious ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort; and brainy John C. Williams, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (and a former Sacramento Bee paperboy).”