#5

I don’t know if you have heard about this hedge fund scandal going on in the news lately, but it’s kind of a big deal. Apparently the former chairman of the NASDAQ swindled investors out of $50 Billion (with a capitol B) in what basically amounts to a pyramid scheme. $50 Billion! How is it that some of the richest men in the world fell for a fraud that my email routinely filters out as spam? He wasn’t swindling little old ladies who couldn’t read the fine print, we’re talking the Bank of Spain.

But on the other hand, I can’t really say a whole lot. The bulk of my investment portfolio is still mainly baseball cards. And you do have to hand it to the guy, he swindled people out of an obscene amount of money. I can’t even say $50 Billion without giggling. It is the biggest fraud in the history of the universe. This guys is definitely getting some kind of law or legislature named after him.

All this to say that there are 3 different types of budgets out there. Guys who make incomes starting with capitol letters, the people who used to have money until they met guys whose incomes start with capitol letters, and then there are the people in the middle. And by the middle I mean a lot closer to the latter rather than the former. You must decide how much purchasing power (measured in units of how many Nintendo Wiis you can put under the tree).

If you are probably going to buy your little brother a used game this year, go to #10

If you are Nintendo, go to #6 for the ultimate gift

If you can’t even afford to wrap somebody else’s Wii, go to #2