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"Dear Readers: I&amp;#039;m asking for your help again.  I am so committed to financial responsibility that I fear I may be tipping too much in the other direction and I don&amp;#039;t want to seem, well, obsessed.  Here&amp;#039;s the thing. March and April at my house are comparable to Christmas when it comes to the burden on my budget. Katie, 13, and Matthew, 9, both have birthdays in March and Hannah, 12, has her birthday in April. This doesn&amp;#039;t even include the others that have birthdays in those months (their dad, my brother, three of their cousins and my close friend). Ugh. It&amp;#039;s difficult.   To further illustrate, here&amp;#039;s a sample of what my kids told me that they want for their birthdays:  Katie: A trip to Italy. &amp;quot;If that&amp;#039;s too expensive Mom, we can just go to South Beach or L.A. or something.&amp;quot; (no more MTV for her)  Hannah: &amp;quot;Can you take me to Florida for my birthday, Mom? No, seriously, Mom. Can you?&amp;quot;  Matthew: (A little easier, but still.) &amp;quot;All I want this year is an electric guitar. Oh, and a couch for my room&amp;quot;  I kid you not. After reading this, you would think that these kids have been bathed in luxury their whole lives. In actuality, they&amp;#039;ve been on a plane once. For the one family vacation we ever took that I got for a rock-bottom price and took me three years to pay off. All Katie knows about South Beach is that some of her favorite singers own homes or vacation there. Hannah loves the sun and Matthew\u2026.well\u2026who knows what the couch is all about.  Here&amp;#039;s what I have in mind. I would like to start up small investment accounts for each of them. There are online programs where you can invest as little as $25 per month. I know that it&amp;#039;s not as exciting to them as, say, a shopping spree at Hollister or Toys &amp;quot;R&amp;quot; Us would be, but I think it&amp;#039;s so important that they learn about saving and investing at an early age. Am I being too responsible or, dare I say, a complete bore if I give them the gift of financial knowledge and responsibility? Am I kidding myself into thinking that it would actually be fun for them to check their mutual funds to see their money growing? Is it wrong to forgo the shiny wrapping that contains toys that will be forgotten next year or gift cards that will be blazed through to purchase clothes that will be in next year&amp;#039;s donation pile? Is it really sad to give a child something that could last and provide them with valuable lessons and maybe some security down the line?  I think that I know the answer to these questions, but let me know what you think! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a45993/the-big-birthday-dilemma-679/>