Personal Finance Related Holiday Gifts
You may not have realized it yet, but Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa is almost here-one recent poll suggested over half of respondents hadn’t started their shopping-meeeeemeeemeeemeeeemeee.
I’m privileged to be a participant in a wonderful financial podcast known as Two Guys and Your Money. The latest roundtable Shortwave Segment (you have to listen to understand) featured several financial bloggers discussing personal finance related options for holiday gift giving.
Here is a Cliff Notes summary of the many great ideas, with a few new bonuses I came up with after the show.
Gifts that can teach kids about money:
- Traditional games such as Monopoly, and Life.
- Computer games such as Planet Orange and Sim City or Financial Football or Soccer can be fun for your 5-12 year old (or any age) who already is iPad/laptop trained.
- Old fashioned toys such as cash registers and ATM’s can help you find teachable moments for kids.
- Savings bonds, stocks and mutual funds are gifts that keep on giving as the saying goes, though may not be as fun Christmas morning.
- Start and fund a college fund-but make sure you keep the child in the loop on your investment choices and why. If you don’t know why, then arrange for the child to meet with the broker/company rep once a year to go over the account. Making investing real to children will be remembered long after the flying helicopter has died and been swept under the bed.
Gifts to teach adults about money:
- Stock, mutual fund, and bond gifts are good for adults, too!
- A college fund for their children of course is also a gift for Mom and Dad, hmmm.
- Magazines such as Money Magazine, Kiplingers, and Consumer Reports
- Books: Peter Lynch’s timeless books on investing, Ramit Sethi, Control Your Cash, and don’t forget mine-The Millionaire Nurse (I’ll sign it for you)
- Even free apps such as Mint with a bonus of an hour of your time helping them set it up-cause you know they will procrastinate.
- Buy an hour or two of personal finance coaching/advice-either a local financial advisor you trust or get money coaching from guru’s like me or Average Joe…
Gifts for the financial nerds (you know the people who read personal finance blogs….) in your family:
- A framed stock certificate of their favorite company-I wrote about this in the past. You know the Coca Cola lover in the family or the “I always buy everything Apple” fan. These give you the option of enrolling in DRIP (dividend reinvestment plans) which are a great way to help beat the coming of hyperinflation.
- Apps such as Ominfocus-high end productivity aids or stock/investing apps.
- Identity theft protection.
- Wall Street Journal or Investors Business Daily are must haves for the financial nut, like me.
- Send him/her to the Khan Academy’s site on finance.
- An investment account such as Fidelity or a research service such as Morningstar.
Don’t forget to listen to the show, as the humor and repartee is worth your time, and the roundtable is only a small segment of the fun.
Reader Questions:
Do you have a favorite personal finance gift-given or received? Please share it with us.
{photo credit: ben garnery c.c.}
My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal.
Follow-Twitter-@DrDeanBurke and @cilburke
Like-Facebook
Circle-Google +
Link to me-at Linked In
Friend-Facebook
Don’t miss anything here-RSS
Tags: gift ideas for Christmas, money management teaching gifts, personal finance related gift ideas, toys and games that teach kids about money
