I am now strongly coming to believe that my daughter Faith would grow up to be in the graphic and animation industry and give all the boys a run for the money. She loves the Disney movie ‘The Road to El Dorado’ and already has two fat sketch books filled with her own doodle interpretation of the movie’s characters and her favorite horsey Altivo.

As a person who is obsessed with the financial affairs of the world, I do understand that we have an obligation to fulfill. We owe an explanation to kids about the consequences of the financial crunch that we have currently created! I decided to first explain how this all began to my daughter in the form of a story involving some of the El Dorado characters. Soon she will grow up and start asking questions and I better be prepared.

You can tell this to your children or give your own explanations!

Lets compare the savings of all the people in the world to El Dorado, the land of many treasures.Tulio and Miguel loved the money that they found in El Dorado and everyone knows it. They soon wanted see their money make some more money. So to do that, they has to invest some of their treasure in order to make some more money in the future. Usually, the people of El Dorado including Tulio and Miguel invested their money in secret places and became super rich but what happened is that, soon other kingdoms found out their secret and started to increase their treasures. Soon, the people of El Dorado did not have many good places to make good investments.

Having understood this, Tulio and Miguel went to the US treasury and invested it in the treasury bonds. Because this gave them the most amount of profit with the least amount of risk. But unfortunately, what happened is that the high priest Tsekel-Kan aka Alan Greenspan reduced the interest rates so low that it did not make any sense to invest in them anymore.

This made Tulio and Miguel turn their eyes towards mortgages. Legends told them, that over the years people have been repaying their mortgage loans every month without fail and therefore it was a safe investment. Since these two weren’t the best of all fraternizers, they sent out Altivo the horse to do the job for them. Altivo the horse, as much as he was smart, he was also lazy. So hired some men and some horses to be mortgage brokers. So people who wanted mortgage loans to buy homes went to these mortgage brokers. Soon a system came into being. These mortgage brokers sold these mortgage loans to El Dorado banks. The banks sold them to the investment companies in the neighboring kingdom of Wall Street. These investment firms in Wall Street made these loans into shares and sold them to Tulio and Miguel aka the global savings.

Tulio and Miguel loved it because more money was coming in. Soon they wanted some more. The mortgage brokers that Altivo the horse had hired didn’t know what to do. So they relaxed on their principles. Earlier, only people who had enough money in the bank and a steady job could apply for a loan. Since the standards were lowered, everybody could get loans even if they did not have enough bank balance or a job. These kind of mortgages came to be known as ‘Sub-Prime’ mortgages. Soon enough, these sub-prime mortgage owners started defaulting on their repayments. This made Miguel and Tulio very unhappy because their treasure was not growing.

So Tulio and Miguel stopped investing their money from the treasure and did not send out Altivo the horse. Soon the entire system collapsed. There wasn’t much money anywhere and that is how it all began – The global financial crunch.

Then came a man named Obama with a lot of plans to make Tulio and Miguel invest their treasure again. But, hey! that is another story.

Alright people, it is my birthday time!! And what really happens every year on my birthday,since I’ve been married is that my husband, Steve, tries to surprise me. Yes! He is adorable and I love him for that. But he just can’t pull off a surprise on me. I always manage to figure out what he is planning because he just can’t keep any secret.

Birthdays mean shopping and partying. It also means extra expenses. Now as a grown up, I can afford a little binge every now and then but it was not always like this. Let me rewind my life a little bit and take you down memory lane. When I was a little girl, my dad would take me shopping for a birthday dress at least a month in advance. The reason why my dad used to do this was because my birthday falls on Halloween, which is incidentally on end of the month. Towards the month end, the finances would usually be a little tight around the house, so my dad would also set my birthday party budget much in advance, so that there would be no unwelcome surprises.

The funny thing is that, when you grow up, the tables get turned. It is now cheaper, if you shop on your birthday than on any other day. A lot of stores give discounts or freebies for the birthday kid.

Victoria’s Secret does that and so does the cosmetics retailer Sephora.. I’m sure that there are many more on this list. This would please a lot of people out there. The trick to happy shopping on your birthday is to know the stores that give will you goodies for free or at discounted rates.

So this time around, it turns out that you can bake your cake and have it too.

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Shopping to you!

I’m an obsessive compulsive socializer and a party animal. During Greek days in school, I was known as Cindy the Entertainer (I love Cedric the Entertainer, by the way). In all modesty, I’ve hosted some spectacular parties that used to be the talk of the sorority (and the fraternity) for weeks. Some of my girlfriends say that my obsession with compulsive socializing is a disease and some of my aunts tell me that it is a genetic trait that I’ve inherited from my father.

Being a full time mom had me craving for some quality ‘all girl’ time. So I sent my husband and baby packing for a weekend and I threw a ‘ Sexy Lingerie Party’ for the girls that had our men begging for entry. It kept them wondering and wanting. Well, did they get it? But that is another story..

Any party is what I make it.

And I’m going to tell you how to party like a Rock Star when you are not.

Make your budget first!!

Be it $0 or $5 or $500, know your limit and stick to it. This is the most important thing that the host of the party should know. Always throw a party just about 1 week from the receipt of your paycheck because even if there are some binges on your party budget, you can still survive.

Make noise!!

Noise is good because it generates a lot of attention. And attention is damn good. It will turn a regular-Joe party into an A-List event. When you do it, make sure that you create noise like no-else has done before.. If you have an account in facebook, twitter or in myspace, create a event and invite friends to attend. If you are graphically good, then you can design and send your e-cards.

Food and drinks

Potluck affairs are always the best. You can ask some of your friends to bring in the alcohol.

You can ask some to bring the salad and the dessert, while others can bring in the main course meal. And, remember, when you cook, make sure that you cook only for half the population. Trust me on this one, there will always be excess of food on your table.

El Musica!!

This should be the last of your concerns. Download the music from the Internet to suit the theme of the party. Never waste money unnecessarily by buying the music dvd/cds. Keep the speakers to a minimum and don’t let the music wake your neighbors up. Or you could soundproof your home if you have the Benjamins and turn the bass up.

Space!!

If your guest list is small and so is your house, keep it in. If your guest list is big and so is your house, keep it in. If your guest list is big and your house is small, have it outside. If you have a garden, make use of it. You could also take the party up to the rooftop. As I said earlier, party is what you make it.

Games!!

Arrange for a lot of games. Adult games or childish games or whatever but we all love playing games, don’t we? Playing games helps your guests to interact and get comfortable with each other.

It would be an icebreaker for many of your guests.

People!!

Have the right people at the right parties. You can’t have a square peg in a round hole, can you? Its your call.

You!!

Always be yourself. Never try to be what you are not. Never try to do what doesn’t come naturally to you. Never neglect your guests. It is your responsibility to make them comfortable. Be generous in receiving help offered for arranging such parties. Keep smiling, keep laughing and party like a Rock Star without spending like one.