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Monday, September 17, 2007

The Suze Orman show and the art of gifting

As usual, watched the Suze Orman show last weekend. One question that a 28-year caller asked was whether she could afford to attend her friend's wedding in Jamaica. The trip would cost her $1,000 and she wanted to know whether she could afford to go there or should she just send her an "expensive gift". Considering her low savings and credit card debt, Suze Orman recommended denial but she also made a good comment about whether the caller should give an "expensive gift".

Suze Orman mentioned that why do people always feel that they need to give an expensive gift. She rather have gifts that are useful instead of expensive, rather than expensive but not useful.

I found her reply very interesting and could relate to it. Am not sure why people think expensive gifts are better than less expensive gifts, especially if someone has to break their budgets to buy it. Am sure a good friend/relative will never want to receive a gift for which the giver had to face any financial hardship.

Over the years, we have been in a similar situation where people have given us expensive gifts which unfortunately, were not very useful or practical. In addition, expensive gifts also create a pressure on us since we also feel obliged to buy expensive gifts in return (and who knows, our recipients also probably find them not very useful). However, over the last couple of years with the arrival of the kids, we have sifted to being more conscious about our situation and give gifts according to our budget. In addition, we have switched to giving either gift cards or cash. Not only it makes life easier for us since we don't have to spend time looking around what to give, but our friends also tend to like them since they can buy things on their own and when they need them, rather than ending up with duplicate items. Not surprisingly, we also have been increasing getting gift cards lately which works well with us too as it lets us avoid stuffing our house with items that we are not going to use.

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posted by Ruby @ 1:23 AM

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