the 3 B's (blankets, bonds & boyscouts)

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 11 November 2006 18:42:52

so i looked out my window day before yesterday, and leaves dropped overnight...so there's a beautiful blanket of color on my yard... deep reds, yellows, orange...some brown. it's really pretty. this morning someone was in my yard - the reason i knew? because i could hear the crunch of leaves under his feet (the boyscouts delivered bags for their annual canned food-drive).

on another note, was thinking about gifts, and how i could invest in my niece and nephew's future... and decided that it would be a nice idea to start giving them savings bonds (not sure what other countries' banks call it, but we buy a bond at 1/2 price, the government uses the money, the origional investment begins earning interest...and in about 10 years it will be face-value, and it can continue earning interest for 30 years. so potentially a $50 bond could turn into approx $400, depending on interest rates). i'm the godmother for my niece, and this is something I want to do for my nephew, too. It's my plan to start giving them bonds this Christmas, and then one or two per year (birthday, Easter or Christmas) and...it'll be a contribution to their future. it's my hope that the children will use the funds for a semester to study abroad...or as a down-payment on their first house... or to buy an engagement ring, or something significant... for example, i'd prefer they didn't use the money to help finance a car at 16 - that's temporary, you know? My great-grandmother (whom i'm named for) did that for my older brother and sister, but she died shortly after I was born, so she gave my mom a check, which Mom invested for me... i used that money to help fund the down-payment on my first house six years ago. it was such a blessing to know that money was there - a nestegg of my very own. An investment.

So, thankfully I got ahead yesterday on my 'to do' list... so was able to go to the bank today - never bought a savings bond before, wasn't sure of the procedure, and didn't realize there's a whole long process to obtain one. They will arrive in 4 - 6 weeks (just in time for Christmas!) to my address... and now I have to decide if I'm going to hold onto them for both chilren (M - age 2, H - age 8 months) and give the parents a gift certificate-thingy... or if I'll send them the actual bonds. my only concern is that they'll get lost in the shuffle of daily life. I purchased a 'fake' book...hollow book?... anyway, I bought one of those yesterday (was thinking about a small wooden chest, but the fake book made more sense to me). The origional plan was to put one savings bond for each child inside the hollow book, each tied up in a long, red velvet ribbon (so as their collection of bonds grows over the years, they can all be bundled together). But now i'm wondering if I should keep the bonds.. was thinking about getting a safety deposit box at the bank for my own papers anyway - just keep them safe in there, and give the parents the gift recept card thing. Actually, the more i think about it, the more it would be so fun to give her (maddie) a stack of bonds I've purchased for her over the past 20 years... donno. and if there's a fire, or a break-in, the bonds are gone. need to think about it. I trust that my brother and sister-in-law wouldn't cash them in or anything... i'm just wanting to keep them safe and protected - investment in the children's future and all :) ...actually, it might be best for me to keep them, and i'll just get a safety deposit box at the bank (no risk of fire, theft, getting drawn on with crayons.). but it would be nice for my brother to actually have the bonds. what are your thoughts?

ok! some of you are going to bed... some of you are already starting your tomorrow, while others are wrapping up your today. it's just after noon my time, and i'm off to the basement to keep working. hope you're all doing well... thanks for the hug, smudgie :) and encouragement ian and JtL :) and recommendations alice :) and, last but certainly not least, the blessings from my very own fairy godmother :-D