Ed Icionsub

All three of my nephews have a birthday coming up in February. In fact, the three of them are just days apart on the calendar although several years apart in age. I always thought it was a little unfair to kids to have a birthday too close to Christmas – they have a strong likelihood of getting shortchanged in the gift department.

On the other hand, someone who is well organized and plans for the upcoming birthdays can take advantage of the Christmas sale prices and buy the gifts for each nephew at Christmas or shortly after Christmas and set them aside until they have to be shipped to the boys in early February.

It bothers me that popular games have books and online resources for players who want to get a hint, find a shortcut, or cheat to win the video games. The idea of cheating is very bothersome and offensive to me. Like in the old west, if someone was to accuse me of cheating I would push my chair back from the saloon table and demand an apology or challenge the scoundrel to a duel in the street.

I have a lot of personal integrity and would not cheat anyone in a card game or a board game. As much as I like to win, I do not believe in winning at all costs. You must play with good sportsmanship and honor, or the win is just a shallow victory of points, not a true win.

My step daughter has a terrible time managing her money. I have tried working with her on this for over 5 years and she still cannot stick to a budget or responsibly manage a checking account. She is always out of money several days before her next payday and is always borrowing gas money to get her through the week.

We have tried to help her manage three different checking accounts at three different banks and she always end up overdrawn and owing a lot of money in overdraft fees. This drives me crazy. Overdraft fees are an expensive punitive measure taken by banks that should be avoided at all costs. But she always has a lame excuse about why she owes the bank money or someone “made a mistake.”

This time we are going to try a new kind of banking. I am going to give her a prepaid debit card.  There is no way to rack up overdraft charges on this account. You cannot spend more than what is on the card, but you can reload it easily from a variety of convenient retail locations, including WalMarts, Walgreens, KMarts, Krogers, and 7-Elevens.

One attractive feature is that you can arrange to have your entire paycheck automatically added to your debit card for immediate access to your money. The card can be used anywhere that merchants accept MasterCard, and you can also use it for online bill pay. So this has all the features of her bank’s debit card program, but none of the banks account fees and overdraft fees that have always eaten away at her account balance.

This year our Christmas is quiet and peaceful, with just the immediate family gathered here at my house. The rest of the family is a day’s drive from Nashville and we just are not up to the trip this year. So the rest of the family will be gathering later today at one of my sister’s house and enjoying a huge covered dish feast together. Since we are not there to defend ourselves, I’m sure we will be the source of all the gossip and snide remarks that only your family can generate. So instead of those festivities, we are having a nice Christmas dinner here and a lazy day enjoying our games and toys here at my house.

Hope Santa find your house tonight and is very, very good to you. Merry Christmas!

Some people have a great way of looking at things as an optimist. They have and project a confidence that everything will be OK. Athletes and salesmen have this character trait.

A set back is an opportunity for a comeback.

My father always had something good to say. He was an endless source of encouragement and comforting words when I needed them. Even the most difficult situations brought out something positive from my father, if nothing else he would say, “It could always be worse!”

When my nephew wanted to go out to California and start his adult life, I gave him one of my old cars that has been sitting around, my 1986 Ford Explorer. I used to love that car, but I found that over the years I drove it less and less. Eventually it was sitting in the back of the driveway for months and I decided that it made more sense to give it to my nephew so he could get some use out of it rather than have it waste away.

So he drove it all the way across country without incident and has been driving it for two years. But as any older car is likely to do, it eventually needed some repair work. He took it to a Los Angeles auto repair shop that he found on the internet. They’ve told him it needs a new head gasket , so he called to ask my advice about whether he should pay for that type of repair or should he give up on it and buy a replacement vehicle.

Of course, I have a lot of fond memories of the car and would hate to abandon it, so I told him to go ahead and get it fixed, and that i would help him pay for the repairs. After it is fixed, he can drive it a little longer, and start saving up for a down payment on a replacement vehicle.

Also according to Petfinder.com, the top 10 names for cats in 2009:

1. Lucy
2. Smokey
3. Midnight
4. Bella
5. Molly
6. Daisy
7. Oreo
8. Shadow
9. Charlie
10. Angel

As a reflection of the huge hit movies and books about vampires, the” Twilight” series, “Bella” made the top 10 list for both cats and dogs – a first for that name.

According to Petfinder.com’s annual survey, for the third year in a row, the Number 1 and Number 2 most popular names for dogs in 2009 are “Buddy” and “Max.” Here is this year’s Top 10 Dog Names:

1. Buddy
2. Max
3. Daisy
4. Lucy
5. Charlie
6. Bella
7. Molly
8. Jack
9. Sadie
10. Lady

As far back as I can remember, my parents and teachers have always talked about gold and the value of this precious metal.

My father always bought gold jewelry for my mother as special gifts, such as anniversaries and Christmas. She had a jewelry box on her bedroom dresser filled with beautiful gold necklaces, earrings and rings.

Mt father also bought gold coins as an investment and as a collector. He kept his collection in a safe in his home office until he became elderly, then he moved them to a safety deposit box for safe keeping.

I inherited his gold collection and have added to it from time to time, over the years. I don’t really think of it as an investment strategy, but then again, if the world came to a crisis I suspect that real gold will become worth much more than the paper money and silver coins that we use today.

I would like to teach my children about gold and how to find valuable pieces to add to a collection. But to be honest, I don’t think either of them are in a good place in their lives to appreciate that yet. So i will wait until things settle down for them and then share some of what I’ve learned about this alternate investment and interesting hobby.