Friend just sent me a photo of a magnificent luxury car with a big fat red ribbon /bow on the top. He purchased this for his wife, nice present. Anyway wondering has anyone here received a present/gift that you consider pretty amazing, everyone's idea of amazing is different of course, and perhaps has nothing to do with monetary value?? MTR
Our gift to each other this Christmas is us booking a house for a week along the coast,nothing fancy but you can't put money on these moments
$20,000 wrapped up in a ribbon from my dad. Nothing beats cash - love it. My aim is to do the same for my kids. (Not yet)
When we lived up north my husband flew my best friend up for the weekend, and took care of the kids, meals, everything. It was a total surprise and absolutely perfect!
Something as common as money isn't amazing. It appears the spirit and thought of Christmas escapes the ideology behind it. pinkboy
a friend took his girlfriend and her closest family members and friends to the maldives to one of those amazing all inclusive resorts for her bday (the friends and family couldnt afford it) and also proposed. pretty damn great present imo. we dont really do gifts for specific occasions in my immediate family, never been big on it but we do heaps for each other throughout the year. much prefer it that way.
Xenia, that's a wonderful gift. It says a lot about you and your father's relationship that he would give you that sum. My parents have given similar sums to my children, which I've invested for them. It's all part of teaching children about money.
If someone gave me cash, I'd feel compelled to be responsible and put it in the bank or invest it. I'd much rather be given tickets to a cruise, or some treat that I have no choice but to take. Plus the left over cash
This is a true story. My eldest daughter some years ago now was working for one of the wineries in Perth, catering for weddings. This particular evening Chinese couple were getting married and father of the groom wrote $1M cheque to his son as a wedding gift. Nice present. MTR
I love cash - best present ever! I have no fear emotions over money, I don't see it as precious or scarce or anything that reflects my self worth. It's a thing! A commodity to be used and enjoyed. It's there to make your life more comfortable and provide more choices. To me - there is nothing further to it. It's just money.
I was at a 21st birthday party for the son of a rich Greek Adelaide family. The parents presented the son with a lambrigini (spelling!!! Those Italian sports cars) and a share in the family's business worth $15 million. Beats having to work at McDonald's lol I love it - if you have it, help your kids
does that help your kids though? having been born in singapore ive seen a fair few cases where the kids of very successful parents are handed everything and it often leads to them being complete lemons. i will absolutely help my kids out and firmly believe in it too but examples like the above ccan often be counter productive imo. i want my kids to be able to fend for themselves and be able to deal with major dramas should they arise.
I'd rather teach them than provide for them, it's far more valuable. This is why there's that other thread about holding wealth through generations being quite rare.
No idea Sanj The $15 mil business share would have helped. The son needed to be qualified - commerce, law degree to get it. He was groomed to take over the whole way. 25 years forward, the dad is now not in the business, the son is fully running it and grooming his own kids to take over. In this case it helped. In my case - I'm established and my dad would do things like this out of pure enjoyment. My dad knows that I work hard and most money made by my businesses goes into saving and investing or kids, he would give me money just because he can and because he wants to. It would not matter if I spent that money on shoes, part of having no emotions over money is not controlling where it goes. I would be the same with my kids - once I give it to them, it's theirs to do what they want. The teaching and educating of my kids has alteady started and will continue whether I give them money to enjoy or not. The teaching is mindset - money has no value other than the value you give it.
i want to do both, in an ideal scenario i would teach them everything i know and hope they're even better than myself financially and then provide them, at whatever point i deem it appropriate, a kick start/advantage to really make most of what they have learnt. if my kid/s end up being really on the ball i see no issue in investing in their ideas or projects or assisting in even say back end stuff (could be use of my staff or other assets of mine). my kid could also be simply not interested in business or whatever and have another passion, id be more than happy helping them pursue that, knowing that they have the grounding and mental and financial maturity to not take it all for granted.
@Xenia yeah i get that, im from a very similar family too (referring to yours not the $15m example). my maternal grandparents really helped my dad get his business off the ground and have helped other members of the family, ive now helped my grandmother and auntie a fair bit, i do definitely agree with helping family although it's usually not just random bits of cash. personally i hope to leave a lot of money behind when im gone, there's so much good it could be used for externally to my family too. besides, if im able to go through everything ive made in a lifetime of running businesses and investing that would mean im not as good at it as id like to think. it's only money after all.
very wise I think some parents place too much pressure on children to succeed. Most important thing for me is that my children are happy and contribute to society in a positive way. MTR
You can do both and fail or succeed, it's more about you not the child and what you teach them which has nothing whatsoever to do with money.
