The Family Fund
We do Things a little differentA New Addition to the Family
This post has absolutely nothing to do with the family fund, but is topical for my family around the holiday. You see, I just got engaged last weekend to this lovely lady (She’s shy, so I’ll keep her name a secret).
I’m looking forward to many many holiday’s with her and the rest of our combined families moving forward.
Love you honey!
The Family Fund on SmartCookies.com
Readers,
The Family Fund was just recently profiled on smartcookies.com. Please take a look, these ladies are doing a tremendous job helping people out.
Joe
The Gingerbread Tradition
Ever since I was a child my mother has been baking gingerbread houses. It started as a fun way that my sister’s and I could give gifts out to fellow elementary school classmates and for some reason it has had a lot of staying power in my family.
Maybe it’s because we’ve had a lot of the same friends since we were that young, or maybe it’s because we generally like giving them out. Nevertheless, I’m a grown adult now, and I still find joy in gifting these to my co-workers.
I can honestly say that this is one of the absolute coolest things my mom does for us, and it always makes me feel like we are part of a tight-knit family.
Here’s to you mom, we love you.
Meet the Family
I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you all to the family. That’s me Joe in the center with the blue hoodie. My father Joe is to my right. That’s my mother Barbara holding our family dog Allie. My sister Jenny is the one in front of me, and little sis Kateri rounds out the group, and she’s located in the back.
We’re going for year two of the family fund. I’m hoping to give you some updates on which stocks we may pick this year, and maybe even solicit advice in upcoming posts.
As I’ve said earlier, we’re planning to cash out some stock and plan a trip to Italy soon. That’s been a lifelong dream, so we want to make sure we do something as a family before we start looking more long term.
Some of the other traditions we’ve started as well are a mimosa brunch and sharing in a Secret Santa together. We still can’t resist the idea of opening something on Christmas morning. We also love wrapping up gifts for Allie (the dog) and watch her romp through them.
Joe
What The Family Fund is all About
Hello There,
My name is Joe, and last year my family and I decided to have a non-traditional holiday to take advantage of the down economy and the fact that we kids are grown and we just don’t get hyped up for Christmas presents anymore.
We found it wasteful. Every year, you spend hundreds of dollars buying family members stuff that they’ll forget about by March.
So, we decided to take that money that we would have spent on presents and create a Family Fund. We invested $700 in the stock market. You see, last year stocks of good brands were basically on clearance.
To date, we’ve turned that first $700 into over $5,000. Pretty cool right? Well, we’re planning our family’s first ever trip to Italy in 2010.
Also, if you’re thinking that this takes all the fun out of the holiday, we still did a secret Santa. We wanted to have the joy of opening something on Christmas.
This is something that other family’s could do as well. My sister’s boyfriend and his family have decided to start-up a family fund of their own this year. The purpose of the fund isn’t necessarily for going on vacations. A nest egg is good for all kinds of things: wedding planning, retirement planning, a down-payment on a house.
I just wanted to create a place where our story could be told. We’re committed to the fund and hope to grow it every year as a family!
