Furth and Fortune blog by Will Murray

You’re at the circus, Disneyland, the zoo, or or the fair. Suddenly your child spots his or her latest “must have” item. The finger points, the hopeful look appears in the eyes, and the words “I want it!” are uttered. What happens next can be an opportunity or a nightmare depending on how it plays out.

I suggest that when a child waaaants something, ask them if they want to buy it with their allowance (they do have an allowance, right?). If they don’t want to spend their money on it, then they have to trade something for it. Ask them which item at home will they part with in exchange for the shiny new thing. Obviously, the thing they have to give away needs to be something fairly equitable. No giving away furniture, sensible clothing, etc.—something else that was a shiny new impulse purchase is best. If the new thing is a big ticket item, the thing they give up needs to be important to the child, too. This helps them learn to value what they have and also understand that everything has a cost.

My parents also had several other good tricks up their sleeves.

Tags: allowances, children, Disneyland, Family, impulse purchases, parenting, raising children, shopping, splurges, tricks

For those of you cooped up inside your snowbound homes and those attempting to reduce your “carbon footprint” by avoiding driving around town looking for the best Christmas light displays, here are some of the best that I found on YouTube. I hope you enjoy!

Christmas Lights Gone Wild by houseofboyd:

Tags: Christmas, cool stuff, decorations, holidays, lights, music, videos, YouTube

I have a confession to make… I’m not very good at folding t-shirts (well, any type of shirts for that matter). Unless I spend about 3-5 minutes, folding and unfolding the shirt (and who wants to spend that kind of time on a dumb shirt!), I always end up with wrinkles, puckers, and other imperfections. I don’t obsess over it, and I didn’t even realize that I was rather pathetic at it, until I saw Martha Stewart on Conan O’Brian’s show one night. She performed this amazing feat of t-shirt origami that created a perfectly folded t-shirt in all of about 2 seconds. Both Conan and I were in shock. I rushed to get the recorder going, hoping to study this amazing technique, but they didn’t show it again closeup. Bummer.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I have found other people know of this technique (especially the Japanese), and I am happy to share the secrets of Ninja-fast t-shirt folding.

And here is another look from a different vantage point.

This fellow claims to be a Genius when it comes to t-shirt folding. I think, given the style of the video, he’s more of a magician.

Boring day at the office? Now that you are a guru at folding shirts, have a t-shirt folding contest on your office floor. These guys did.

If your inner-Ninja is still earning its first belt, you might find this alternate method using simple cardboard cutouts to be more your style. I love the silly musical theme they used.

These labor-saving tips are my Labor Day gift to you. Enjoy!

Tags: clothing, Conan O'Brian, contests, cool stuff, folding, Labor Day, Martha Stewart, origami, t-shirts, tips, tricks, videos, YouTube