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Christmas Present Tips for Guys

Christmas Shopping Tips for Guys

giftgreen1Most of us guys are useless at Christmas shopping. Here's a few tips I've picked up over the years.

Ladies, you might want to share this with the men in your family to avoid getting an undesirable and badly wrapped present this Christmas.

  1. Buying your Christmas presents at a petrol station or dairy on Christmas morning really isn't the done thing - apparently not everyone wants a funnel, box of biscuits or a car care kit. Don't do it.
  2. Get started early, no not on Christmas Eve, yesterday was already too late.
  3. First thing in the morning is the best time to Christmas shop, and I mean first thing, teenagers are still in bed.
  4. It's not the thought that counts, it's how MUCH thought that counts.
  5. Cash is a GREAT present for teenagers - and me.
  6. If you must give gift vouchers make sure they are from a shop the recipient actually shops in and try and avoid those with an expiry date.
  7. Wrapping and cards are important, you and I know it's just paper but for some reason they are important.
  8. Before you start browsing in a shop check that it does gift wrapping and accept the service - wait if necessary. If the shop doesn't do gift wrapping move on to the next. Unless you are an expert present wrapper - Yeah Right!
  9. Even if every present you buy is gift wrapped, buy plenty of wrapping paper and sellotape. You are going to need it because dairy's and petrol stations don't gift wrap and being a bloke you'll probably ignore number 1.

Guys ignore the above at your peril and have a wonderful Christmas.

Posted in Commentary on the Investment Environment.

Glossary of Terms

Regularly, financial reports are littered with abbreviations that often make little sense to those outside the financial industry so here is a listing of some of those that are more commonly seen.

ASX Australian Stock Exchange
Bernanke Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
b.p Basis points.  100 basis points = 1.00%
BOJ Central Bank of Japan
BOP Balance of payments.  Value of imports vs exports
CAD Current Account Deficit.  Part of the BOP.  The current account balance is simply the difference between receipts from the rest of the world and payments to the rest of the world.
Coupon Cash distributed, more often quarterly or six monthly from a fixed interest security.
Dow Dow Jones Index, (DJI) top 30 listed companies (by market capitalisation) in US. Started by Charles Dow on 26th May 1896 with 12 companies. General Electric is the only survivor of those 12.
Duration Duration is a measure of risk in a bond (fixed interest security) portfolio.  It is the weighted average maturity of the cashflows of a bond(s) (including the interest coupons and the face value) measured in years.  The higher the duration the more the capital returns of the bond portfolio are affected by changes in interest rates.
ECB European Central Bank
EPS Earnings per share
Fed The US Federal Reserve.  The central bank of the US
FTSE Financial Times Share Index, top 100 listed companies (by market capitalisation) in UK
GDP Gross Domestic Product
Greenspan Alan Greenspan, Ex Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
IMF International Monetary Fund
MPS Monetary Policy Statement
NZSX New Zealand Stock Exchange
OCR

Official Cash Rate – interest rate for call funds.  Set by the RBNZ and used as a lever to influence overall monetary conditions and maintain price stability.  Reviewed six weekly.
P/E Ratio of a share price divided by EPS to measure years to repay that purchase price. A high P/E generally relates to newer growth type companies.
Rally (Bonds) Interest rates decline.  Inverse relationship with bond prices. That is, price of bonds increase.
RBNZ Reserve Bank of New Zealand
S & P

Standard & Poor’s.  International Credit rating agency.
S & P 500 Standard & Poor’s Top 500 Index.  Index for measuring the performance of largest 500 US companies in leading markets.
Spreads (Bonds) A premium of a bond above the yield of a government bond – compensation for risk.
TMT Technology, media, telecommunications
TWI Weighted exchange rate index. A weighted index of NZ’s major trading partners.
Yield Curve The relationship of the yield on a bond and its maturity date.  Government bonds on issue are graphed to produce a yield curve. A measure of market expectations of interest rate, risk and return over a range of durations.
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