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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.

Decisions, Decisions

You will make 10,000 decisions a day… How do you get the big ones right?

shockedfaceBelieve it or not you will make 10,000 decisions before you close your eyes for the day. That number comes to us from Noreena Hertz, an economist and author of Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World. Ms. Hertz explains that the choices we make in our daily lives range in importance from what to eat (227 decisions about food alone), to potentially life altering decisions.

Most of these choices are fairly easy and require no (or little) conscious thought.

But then we know that there are plenty of tough choices we have to make too, and the quality of those decisions dictates your course in life. Emotions, biases and distractions can easily cloud decision-making and cause you to make choices that may not be in your best overall interest.

And there is one thing that most of us will agree on: no matter what your own interests are in life, having money will help you achieve them.

To make sure that your financial decisions are as good as they can be, here is a decision-making framework you might find useful:

  1. Define the big decisions. Know which ones need to be made carefully
  2. Identify the biases that may influence your decision-making
  3. Quantify the costs of doing something, and doing nothing
  4. Quantify the benefits
  5. Determine whether you have the ability (resources, time, knowledge) to make the decision
comfortably
  6. Understand what compromises or tradeoffs you might need to make
  7. Determine whether or not it’s logical & sensible to go ahead
  8. Create an action plan (a list of things to be done to make the decision work out the way you want)
  9. Do it…take action!
  • Last updated on .