What the Season is Really About
Have you finished any last-minute Christmas shopping you had planned this past weekend? It seems that the shopping season begins earlier every year, and the ever-increasing frenzy of commercialism has caused many to struggle to remember the real reason for the season.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, most people agree that the holidays are about family and purposefully giving to others. If you have purpose in your giving, you’ll also discover joy and inner peace, which are two things that the holiday season are also about.
You can make giving—both the kind of giving you do around the holidays, and the kind that happens during sound wealth planning—something you think through as thoroughly as you do a new business opportunity.
The approach you take to generosity is determined by your bias in giving. My mentor in wealth planning, Jay Link, artfully articulated two major approaches to charitable giving: The Rifle Approach (giving larger amounts to fewer charities) or The Shotgun Approach (giving smaller amounts to many charities).
Which approach matches up with your desires, and where do you believe you have the most impact from your gifts? There is no wrong way to choose to be generous… the important thing is that you choose. Make sure you are giving as much attention to your wealth distribution as you did to your wealth creation by discussing your planning options with a professional who can help you focus your generosity where it matters most—both during the holidays and for years to come.
Wealth is more than money. Don’t just plan for your future, live it right now.
May you and your family and loved ones experience the joy of this Christmas season! 
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“You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me. For the past 50 years or so I’ve been getting more and more worried about Christmas. Seems we’re all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less,
that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle.”
—Kris Kringle, from Miracle on 34th Street