This gift-giving holiday tradition is a family favorite. In this episode, I'm going to address
the question, "What is a favorite Christmas gift tradition that is easy, fun, and very
memorable?" Hang on. You're going to be blown away with how simple this is but how powerful
and how uniformed it is for those in your family, in your children, your grandchildren.
And I'm going to share with you how we do it. And then you can adapt to how this may
work in your particular set of circumstances. So, my name is Doug Andrew and I've helped
many, many people optimize not just their financial assets as a financial strategist
for more than 4 ½ decades. But also help people have family retreats with a purpose.
One of my favorite topics is grandpa's camp where we gather all of our grandchildren every
year for an entire week. The older one is first and then the younger ones come and join
them. But a lot of people ask, "Doug, what is one of your favorite Christmas gift-giving
tradition so you don't spoil the children, you treat them equally, and so forth?" So,
let me just share with you that my wife, Sherry and I, we've been married north of 46 years
now. We have 6 children. We have 4 daughters and 2 sons. And with their spouses and also
20 grandchildren, there are a total usually of 30 to 33 of us at a Christmas gathering.
And so, the tradition that I started several years ago, I could not stop if I wanted to.
My grandkids and my kids would not allow me to stop this tradition. And it really just
as so simple with some envelopes. But it's what I do with these envelopes that makes
all the difference. And so, I'm going to share with you what my wife does. But this is grandpa's
tradition and my wife loves it also. But Christmas would never be the same in our house without
doing this every single year. So, before I share with you how I give a gift-giving tradition
in our family that we've used now for years and years. I couldn't change it if I wanted
to. We also have sort of a similar tradition with what grandma does for the grandchildren
and mom does for her adult children. And as I said, we have 6 children, their spouses
and we now have 20 grandchildren that participate in this tradition every single year. Now,
what has become expected of grandma is on Christmas eve, all of the grandchildren get
a new set of PJs, okay? I don't know how she started that. But now they expect pajamas
from grandma. And so, she always goes through and buys all of them new pajamas for the grandchildren.
The adult children, she goes through and helps them with some of their emergency preparedness,
storage item whether it's food storage or medical supplies. Because we are sort of emergency
preparedness nuts. And so, my wife, traditionally will buy pajamas for the grandkids for children
emergency supplies to become self-reliant in case of a natural disasters, 72-hour emergency
kits or what have you. And then she will go through and buy a specific gift for each of
the children based upon a budget. Now, this isn't about money. I'm going to give you ideas
so that you can be uniformed. But she goes through a ton of mental anguish trying to
be fair to all of the children and grandchildren. And I know what that's like because maybe
one gift only cost 25 dollars. But another gift cause $100 which is 4 times. And so,
you know, she wants to be fair. Well, that's why my method makes it extremely fair when
I use the envelope system that I'm going to share with to empower the grandkids. So, I'm
going to tell you next how I do this. So, years ago, when I was thinking how can I make
sure that what I give to my children and grandchildren is uniform, how can I allow them to be able
to buy what they want. Because sometimes when they would make a Christmas list, a wish list,
I would think I knew what they wanted. But maybe it wasn't the color or the brand or
whatever. And so, I began to realize, "You know what? I'm going through a lot of brain
damage trying to be fair and give everybody equal amounts." And sometimes, the older ones
require a little bit more expensive things. So, I created a system. And for me, with our
children, grandchildren at the time... Now, money changes value through the years. So,
you can adapt from this idea. But for years, what we did and still a tradition, I would
gift every child and grandchild $5 for every year old that they are. Okay? Up until they
turn 20 and they tops out at 100 bucks. Because 20 times $5 is $100. Now, you could do that
$10 for every year old. You could do it $2. Whatever you can afford. But for years, I've
been doing $5 for every year old that they are. So, as they get older and older, they
know they're going to get another $5. When they're teenagers, they're starting to get
50, 60, 70 dollars. When they turn 20, they get $100. And that's where I cap it out at
for my adult children. Now, we give them other gifts like I mention. But when you look at
a family my size, we basically with all of our now 20 grandchildren, that comes out this
year to $975 that I gift in the form of actual cash. I'm going to show you how I do this.
With all of those that are 20 or older and all our adult children, it's 100 bucks. So,
I go through $3,000 then I add my wife. And I usually give her like $600 or $1,000 also.
But I also hide hers like I do the rest. So, I usually put their money and I go to a bank
and I get crisp $5, $10, $20 bills and sometimes $50 and $100 bills. And so, they get brand
new money. It's so crisp because some of my grandkids... This burns a hole in their purse
or their pocket until they go to the mall the next day. I have some grandchildren that
have every single bill I've given them for the last 20 years. I've put it in these envelopes
and I hide them, okay? Now, in our house, usually, I have our 6 children and their children
all hidden in the same room --the dinning room, the kitchen, the living room, the family
room, the exercise room. And I shift those through the years. And I keep track. It only
takes me about 30 minutes to hide them. And I hide them based upon their age on how difficult
it is to find. My adult children? Oh, I have taken a part heat vents, put it under carpet
pads. Sometimes they have taken a half-hour to an hour to find their money. And it's like,
they will work harder to try to find their envelope with 100-dollar bill in it than if
they went out and worked that much time doing what they do in their profession. It's not
about the money. It's about outsmarting their dad and where he hid it. This has become a
family tradition. So, when they finally open up their envelope where they found it inside
of couch cushion or pillow or up in the attic above the light or something like that, they'd
open it up and maybe it's just a crisp 100-dollar bill in there. But it's not so much about
the money. It's about trying to find out where their envelope was hidden to see if I could
outsmart them for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I could not stop doing
this if I wanted to. But as everyone begins to find their envelope... Or if some of the
little ones... Maybe it's too hard, I start giving hints after 20 or 30 minutes and the
family comes together. But now they have an amount of money based upon their age. It's
extremely fair to everybody. They begin to add up. "Golly, next year, I'll get this much."
They look forward to it. And they already know what they're going to save it for or
what they're going to buy with the envelope money that grandpa is going to hide for us.
So, if you're going, "Golly!" I would like to share this with somebody in my family that
was wondering, "Golly, what's a good gift-giving tradition that we could start?" I'll show
you at the end a link to where you can share this concept with them and how you can get
a free copy of one of my books by going to my website. So, stay with me. I like to use
these gift envelopes which you get very inexpensively, usually in packages of 10. Sometimes, I'll
have snowman and the ones for the grandkids. These are for more the adults. And they hold
the cash inside. But the key is to get denominations. With little children, they think they have
more money the more bills you give them. So, instead of giving them maybe 2 tens and a
5 For 25 dollars, you can give them five 5's and they, "Look what I got. I got 5." Because
they don't even understand money yet. But I always give them crisp brand new dollar
bills and I have to order them at my bank. Usually in November and then I go pick them
up. But if you're connecting the dots, I hide the envelopes but I get my Christmas shopping
done in less than 60 minutes. It's uniformed, it's a hit. I simply look at all of my grandchildren
and this year that I'm recording this, I know the denominations for every single one of
my grandchildren, 5 dollars for every year old they are. That comes to $975. I also have
6 children and their spouses. There's another $1,200. And then I have my wife. And I will
usually hide 500, 600; 1,000 dollars for her. But everybody has to find their envelope before
they get their money, okay? But when you think about it, I simply calculate, I go down to
the bank and I pre-arranged for the brand new bills and I walk in and I have my Christmas
shopping done in less than 20 minutes at the bank. I come back, put them in their envelope.
Sometimes I just use one like this. I put their name on it and then we hide them in
the various places in the rooms. Now, sometimes some of their siblings finds their envelope
and they always know if they find somebody else's envelope, they can't tell them or share
with them. If they have a hard time finding it, they might give a hint. But it becomes
a favorite tradition in our home. And it makes it really quite simple. So, grandpa gets his
shopping all done with about 30 minutes of math and 20 minutes at the bank, 10 minutes
driving to the bank. And I'm done with my Christmas shopping. And it's the favorite
part of our Christmas holiday. So, whatever a-ha's that you may have received watching
this episode, make your gift-giving a tradition every year. Something simple as the envelope-hiding
is a favorite in our family. It's nice because it creates uniformity. I'm able to give money.
They can use that money to save or to get what they want. But it's hiding the envelopes
that makes all the difference. I hide in more difficult places for the older ones. And for
my adult children, especially my 2 sons that are now in their 40's, oh, my heavens! Is
it a challenge because dad has to keep finding a place that they will never find it. And
they do. But sometimes they almost have to take the room apart to find where I hid their
envelopes. It would become a family favorite tradition whatever take you have on this idea.
But if you would like to learn more about various concepts, you can claim a free copy
of this book Entitlement Abolition where I talk about family traditions and family vacations
with a purpose --grandpa's camp, you go to entitlementabolitionbook.com and you can claim
your free copy. You just pay a nominal amount toward the shipping and handling and I'll
cover the rest. But if you want to learn more, I have 2 websites I would recommend. 3dimensionalwealth.com.
It has all kinds of different links to different books that I can gift you for fee. Also, Dougandrew.com
will help you understand some of the topics that I love to speak about and write about
and articles. And search on this YouTube channel, 3 Dimensional Wealth if you would like to
learn more. Thank you so much for engaging with me with this powerful idea.