Gift Idea

I received this email today:

Christmas Gift Ideas- No not a Christmas list or "gift" idea. But a new way to give to your children. In order to simplify things in your household this Christmas consider this idea.
For each child (or Adult) give four items to fit into each category of- NEED, WANT, WEAR, READ.
And then you can still do a Santa gift if you like, just for the Magic of Christmas:)

So give something the child Needs, Something they Want, something they Wear (PJ's as the Christmas Eve gift is a great idea) and something to Read.

It will make each gift much more special and you can perhaps be able to purchase more quality items instead of spreading out your budget over a dozen toys.

After all Christmas isn't about the presents anyway. This is a great way to control spending, and not end up with a bunch of plastic parts to lots of toys scattered all over the house after Christmas.
Trust me your Children will not miss those, and neither will you!

Pass this idea along!

My Thoughts:

This is truly a great Idea. That old worn out cliché, “It’s the thought that counts” is really a very intriguing piece of wisdom. Instead of going out and purchasing a bunch of low quality, cheap and otherwise useless bunch of “stuff”, actually think about the four things. Plan your purchases instead of going to the store and throwing the brightest colored box in cart and waving around the almighty credit card in some idiotic gesture of indulgence. Think, that’s the thought part, about what your loved ones really need, and really want. Your loved ones, and your wallet will thank you. I have seen my family spend exorbitant amounts of money on my kids for Christmas. They want to see the glimmer of glee in their eyes that they had as a child. The only problem is that everyone is so overloaded with ‘stuff’ these days that the thoughts are hollow, and the glee isn’t there. We have donated so much “stuff” to charities after Christmas, sometimes still in unopened boxes that it’s difficult to imagine what “thought” went into those gifts. In my observation, there are generally only two toys each year that my kids play with constantly after Christmas time is over. That’s it 2 toys per season. So say you have a budget of $100 per kid. You do have a budget, right? You can buy ten, ten dollar gifts, of which two will make the cut(maybe). Or you can get two $50 gifts that will most likely be cherished, especially if you put thought into it. One way, you waste $80, the latter, you get your money’s worth. Besides, those $10 gifts usually aren’t a high enough quality to last till next year, while some $50 gifts will last a lifetime. I.e. I still have my original Legend of Zelda cartridge from when I was a kid. I occasionally play it just to remember those “Good old” days. So THINK about the gifts you give and who you will give them to, and everyone will be much happier this Christmas, except maybe Wal-mart’s CEO.

Cash is King...Or is it?

© PhotoXpress.com

Well here we go. Federal Government is increasing Debt to all time highs. The Fed is printing money faster than the ink can dry, all the while telling us the recovery is at hand. Things don’t seem to be getting better, but so far the dollar hasn’t inflated much in spite of the huge printing run. Why is that? Because we’re all hoarding the stuff! Think about it. If the fed is printing more money, but everyone is hoarding money, the relative volume of cash stays the same. It’s not until we the people go out and start trying to spend our hoarded up money that inflation will set in. And it will, and once it does our economy will see the BIG dip. And since the federal government is up to it’s eyeballs in debt, there will be little recourse on their part. In fact at the G20 Summit, the other nations of the world are seriously wanting to get rid of the American Dollar as the international currency of trade! If China stops buying all of our government bonds, the Debt of America, our currency value will drop like a lead brick. Imagine paying upwards of ten dollars a gallon for gasoline, or five for a loaf of bread? Our lives are so based on foreign trade that America no longer stands on it’s own anymore. So America will go Bankrupt. And our creditors will buy up our federal land, our military equipment, our gold and oil reserves, pretty much everything that makes America great will be gone. And your couple of thousand in cash? Gone so fast you blinked and missed it. Your wages won’t be adequate for feeding your family. Cash will be all but worthless and the necessities of life will be more valuable than bricks of gold. Food, clean water and shelter will be invaluable as people are driven from their no longer affordable homes. Shanty towns will form and everything will be pretty close to the great Depression, except this time we will have enemies with nuclear arsenals. They will laugh and laugh at our prideful stupidity as we allowed ourselves to implode.
What can you do? Here's an idea, buy one full months worth of non-perishable food. This is good advice regardless of what may come, because if anything bad happens, food shortages will be the first problem. “But I need the cash if I lose my job!” You reply. What do you think you’re going to be spending that cash on!? Buy food supplies now, it’s not paranoia, it’s common sense. If where you live floods, you can’t drive to the grocery store. Tornado could blow the store away. Any number of things could cause you to be unable to go grocery shopping. Be smart and take care of your family. Cash is only worth what you can buy with it.