Santa Requests

By Dian Vujovich

Dear Santa,

I realize that you’re awfully busy but I’ve got a request: Would you mind sprinkling a little wisdom dust to all investors around the world as you fly through the skies tonight delivering gifts? You won’t have to add any packages to your bag or weight to the sleigh and it would mean oh-so much to me and perhaps make their lives of many more profitable in the future.

Yes, I’m well aware that money isn’t everything but we all need plenty of it to live these days. So if you can find some way of sharing a few little tidbits of financial sense people everywhere might all be ho-ho-ho-ing a little more.

I’d appreciate it if you would please sprinkle the notion that not all investments make money, and that picking and choosing the right ones can be as much of an art as it is luck. Then let folks know the reason people invest is to make money and to do so means taking risks and profits. Sometimes the obvious gets so forgotten, Santa. But I’ve heard that you’ll never go broke taking a profit and think that’s pretty true.

Then sprinkle —and lay this one on heavily—that anybody offering you an investment deal that seems too good to be true means it usually is. Why people have to keep learning that one over and over again I’ll never know. Perhaps it’s because we’ve all got greed and competition meters tucked inside of us and sometimes they get a little out of whack.

And my last sprinkle request is a wide-eyed one. Let investors everywhere know that when you really open your eyes you’ll see so many wonderful things that don’t cost a penny and yet are more rewarding than any financial fortune could ever be. Like a smile from someone you love, the sound of a baby’s laugh, the touch of a hand holding yours, and Florida’s most incredible sun rises and sun sets. I could really go on and on here but respect the fact that you’re on a tight schedule.

Somehow I know you’ll fill my request and I’ll thank you right now for that. And when all your work is done tonight, may your Christmas be a very merry one, too.

You’re the best, Santa.