do you think a gift card for sharebuilder and a book on investing is a good graduation gift?
553876
Only partly...Chances are a book on investing will not be read by a person that age. (unless they love to read and all the interesting books are checked out of the library and US magazine goes out of print). The sharebuilder has a chance of working. However, you can't just give a gift card and walk away. That money is as good as spent. You need to put a plan in place to teach savings. Here is what I recommend. Sit down with your grad and explain sharebuilder. Then put up your seed money and a promise to match in some % the amount the grad is willing to contribute herself with a specific goal for what the money will be spent on. Explain that only when the goal is achieved can the money be spent. It is not really that important what the goal is but that it is realistically achievable in a reasonable amount of time. (retirement for someone that age won't fly). In the end, with some of her hard-earned dollars contributed, your extra "pennies from heaven" and a little help from the "Market" you might be able to give a young person the understanding of the path to saving and acquiring wealth. Good luck and please don't listen to your friend -- it took me a long time to type this :)
816082
I assume you are quite young.  Last year my son, then 15, asked for Axe, and a gift card for Wal-Mart can always be used for what he wants.  You've mixed your personal, thoughtful gift and card with the practical gift card.\nThis answer does not apply if you're 40 and earn $100,000/year.\nMerry Christmas!!
473112
I think a great "congratulatory gift" if you can swing it..would be to show up at their restaurant with a group of 20 people (reservations of course) in tow..all hungry and thirsty!\n\nor... a reservation for your companies Holiday party!\n\nor... show up once a week with a different group of friends who have not been there yet. \n\nor.... if you are looking for something more.."gifty" what about an ad in the paper congratulating them on achieving their dream? \n\nor a shadow box with mounting and an engraved plate the date for their first dollar bill to be displayed in? (mr. krabs would love that!\n\ngood luck to your friends!
739978
There's plenty of graduation cards at the drugstore.  I had to think of something similar for my cousin who graduated from law school.  I just got him a fancy clock for his desk from Z Gallerie.
439181
I've been studing the market game for about a year now, i didn't knew anything a year ago, I havent invested anything yet, i've just been practicing in stock simulators like stocktrak.com for about 2 months now, im happy i've made almost a 7% in my simulations (im happy with that since i am a rookie), I think I need to do a lot more reading, studing and practicing before I invest a single dollar for real. I think now I understand the markets much better.\n\nSince I am in a similar position as you are, just 1 year ahead studing :) , I would strongly recommend you to start by studing Profr. Peter Navarro's material. First I studied his audio course "Big picture investing", and read his books "when is raining in Brazil buy Starbucks", "when the markets move will you be ready?" and now i'm reading his most recent book "the well timed strategy", for me it was great to start with the audio course, since he explains the basics to understand the market, and it comes with a very didactic printed course guide. Profr. Navarro has been a great teacher for me, I don't think there are other books as good as this for a beginer, and belive me, i've done my research and been reading a lot!! after the audio course i was able to understand and take more "juice" from his books and other books that I have read, I recommend you to do the same thing.\n\nRegarding the Can Slim system teached by IBD's Bill O'Neal, I think he is a real master, his investing approach is great and relatively easy to follow if you use the investing tools on investors bussiness daily and do your research homework every day, actually, I just took the Can Slim Level I Seminar some weeks ago, and I am already subscribed for the level II seminar to be held at the end of this month, BUT, if i hadn't studied Profr. Navarro's material before, I am shure I would understanded much less from the can slim seminar, so I recomend you to start with Profr. Peter Navarro's material, its great material and has been a lot of help for me.\n\nYou can find Profr. Navarro's audio courses and books at barnes and noble, either in the book store or online, is not an expensive material, i would have pay 10 times its price, its worth much more.\n\nAnd, once you start to study, the learning curve never ends!! start with Prof. Navarro, before you buy any material much more expensive and not worth its price, belive me i've done it :(..im shure you will thank me.\n\nGood luck!!!
332480
I think it would be cool to get him something that he can remember you by like maybe getting a personalized gift at the store Things Remembered.\nThere is always the Gift Card option too that way you know he will be getting something he wants or can use.
623418
I like the gift card idea. I would not go over $50 and not less than $25. If your going to do anything it would be an insult to send less. Good luck
738218
I think a card should be enough.  You don't want him to get the wrong idea.
1178237
Well, I know this isn't a HUGE AWESOME gift. But it could just be a SIDE gift. I'm currently 14 and I gave my brother this when he graduated from high school and he loved it. And it's a common gift for graduations too. "Oh The Places You'll Go!" by Dr.Suess. It's extremely meaningful.
877247
it depends on your age - if you are young and still working stock and bonds are very god but if you are older you ay want to keep a guaranteed return on investment such as CD's\nreal estate is up and down I dont recommend it
220040
If you know what college he is going to be attending, get him a gift certificate for the college bookstore.  If he is going to be paying for his own books and supplies while he's in college, he'll appreciate it!\n\nIf you prefer to give a money gift, I would recommend $100-$200.  In my experience, $50 is what you give an aquaintence.  If you're close to this kid, that price range would be a generous amount to give.
65698
My friend if indeed you are serious, then yes invest in your financial education. Robert Kiyosaki(R.K.) calls this "financial literacy". My friend, before making any trite or quick decisions (if you want to maximize the return on your $20k)buy and read these 4 books in sequential order: 1)Rich Dad, Poor Dad by R.K., 2)Cash Flow Quadrant by R.K., 3)The Business School by R.K., 4)E-Myth or E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. Upon finishing these 4 books you will know then exactly what quadrant of quadrants you want to fit into and how you want to go about creating income. Please understand that I am sharing this information with you as a friend. I want to see you as a success, however, as Stephen Covey says in his infamous book The 7 habits of highly effective people..seek first to understand... I truly hope this helps and multiplies your $20k into $200k, $2m, $20m, $200m, and beyond. Please email me and let me know how you are progressing (solusionz@yahoo.com). Refer to this conversation or I may accidentially delete your query.\n\nBackground/Qualifications: College Education (Biz)\n                           Business Owner "B"&"S"
1000613
if you have money you can some places to buy stock are settinng up an account with etrade.com or fidelity.com if you are a minor you need you parents to help set up an account with you
62747
No.\n\nThe Sears' accounting department views gift cards as sold merchandise (especially on reports to their stock holders).  So, they can't let you apply it to previous purchases, or they will hurt their end of year report.\n\nYou could sell it, or give it to someone else, or just enjoy it.
669285
It's more of a inspirational book and the goal is to change your attitude.  I found all of the advice in there to be very basic for anyone who has a basic knowledge of real estate.  He doesn't get into any specifics either, so you're on your own if you want to do any real deals.  It's definitely not as easy as he makes it sounds.  But the point is that these books are one of his businesses and he is in the business of selling books that you want to buy.  Keep that in mind.\n\nHe does present some of the basic concepts fairly well, such as don't buy the huge things that drain your cash and give no return.  I read a couple of the books.  They got a bit repetitive because he was saying the same thing over and over, but it's not bad overall.
584364
You didn't say how large the overall portfolio is, which is a key issue, but I can understand not wanting to feature your entire financial life on a public message board.  In general, mutual funds are ideal for people with small portfolios, say under $25000, because it allows them to get diversification that they couldn't afford any other way.  Once you get past $50,000, or $100,000, mutual funds become much less attractive.  At those levels, there are independent financial advisors who could handle your portfolio for less than you'd pay a mutual fund in fees, and  provide much more individualized service. (We'd be happy to talk to you if you're interested) Plus, you'd have a large enough portfolio that you're effectively able to diversify on your own, without the need of mutual funds.\n\nIn general, my impression of mutual funds is that they're all pretty average.  I almost would feel silly commenting on 'good' or 'bad' funds, because they are normally all so close together that it's not incredibly relevant.  Further, their investment strategies often change overnight, and you have little way of knowing until after the fact, so really, your guess is as good as mine.  Basically, you can look at their past results (over the long-term, not just the past year) to get an impression of their management ability, but that doesn't give you any true indication of the future, so it's largely estimation.\n\nStocks, on the other hand, can be judged more concretely.  Of course, we can never know for sure with them either, but at least we have something concrete to look at.  So:\n\nI'm a big fan of IACI.  The future looks strong, and the assets are valuable.  Definitely hold on to this one for a while.\n\nMSFT: Boring!  I dunno what's up with Microsoft, but it's been among the most uninteresting stocks for at at least the last half dozen years.  I suspect it's a size issue.  There comes a point where it's difficult to grow without cannibilizing your own sales on another product.\n\nHLT: Not sure what the attraction is here.  If you've held this for a while, perhaps you've gotten a nice profit already.  Can't say if it's at its end yet, but it's definitely not something that I'd be buying right now.\n\nECA & BHP: Resource stocks like these are definitely popular right now, with good reason.  I think there's still more upside here, but these are definitely not long-term plays.  It's hard to say exactly when you ought to sell this type of stock.  This is just a situation where you have to observe the world and the industry on a consistent basis, and make the assessment over and over.  But, for now, I'd say hold on.\n\nYou didn't ask for stock recommendations, but if you're interested, I'm a big fan of MI and TMX right now.\n\nBest of luck to you.\n\nP.S.  I've included a link to a story that disagrees with me on Microsoft.  Who knows...maybe there's some value there after all.  But I'm still not convinced.
276167
I like gift cards to a nice local restaurant.  Cash gift cards are too tacky... it's just cash.... chocolate is always welcome too, especially really fine chocolate.  A stylish desk accessory at holiday times is always appropriate too.