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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.

“Real Estate Prices Going Through the Roof so now is the Time to do Something”

House For SaleWe loved these comments from Tim Farrelly in his Crockpot section of farrelly's Quarterly Asset Allocation Handbook, be sure to read to the end.

“Real Estate Prices Going Through the Roof so now is the Time to do Something”

So ran a recent advertisement for an Australian real estate agent / mortgage broker/ financial planning firm – accompanied by the seemingly obligatory photograph of a satisfied, Hawaiian shirt-clad investor lounging in a hammock. Importantly, it was backed up by the following Facts.

  • Land running out – pushing real estate prices up.
  • Banks reluctant to lend to developers – pushing real estate prices up.
  • Investors coming back into the market – pushing real estate prices up.
  • Interest rates on their way up – pushing real estate prices up.
  • People not investing in the stock market – pushing real estate prices up.

Crockpot normally focuses on ideas that are plausible but, in farrelly’s view, fatally flawed. And, while we should be the last ones to ever poke fun at non-conventional investment ideas, this one was SO out there we thought we’d run it on its own without much comment – other than to say that we are wondering what it would take to get property prices down? Perhaps a combination of falling interest rates, a property lending spree by the banks and a buoyant sharemarket should be the stuff of property investors worst nightmares?

Even better still, the ad advises that you can borrow to invest and “take all the rent and the negative gearing” to pay off your existing home loan. Negative gearing never seemed so good!

It’s nuts and you can clearly see it’s nuts!

 

Source: farrelly's Proactive Asset Allocation Handbook - NZ Edition - June 2011.

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