With global food prices escalating rapidly, it’s the kids that I feel sorry for. Ultimately I think they are the ones who will suffer most especially those in the third world countries.

In the news today is a family giving up their 11-year-old son to the orphanage in the hopes he will have a better life than if he were to remain in the village. Both his parents are still alive but they have a string of other younger children that they can’t afford to feed.

So they figured he’d be better off at the orphanage where he can have proper care and a proper education. It’s heart-breaking to watch the youngster, fighting back tears, preparing to leave the people he loves and a life he’s familiar with.

It must not have been an easy decision for his parents either. But increasingly it seems parents are seeing this as one solution to the high cost of raising kids.

I tend to look at this as part of a bigger problem. Parents who can’t afford to provide for their kids should seriously consider contraceptives. They should be educated about the responsibilities of parenting and be given the information to make choices before they even have those kids.

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I recently dug up an old piggy bank we’d totally forgotten about. When I poured it out, I was pleasantly surprised to find it contained coins from the countries we’ve visited.

The kids were thrilled and immediately started sorting them out. Some of the coins in there are no longer in circulation. I wonder if they can be considered rare coins.

I’m not sure what certified coins are or if rare coins can be certified and sold for a higher value. But those are the few coins we get to boast about, not enough to get us anywhere, I’m sure the rare coin consultants will tell us .

The last weekend before school reopens is always crazy busy. I took the kids for their haircuts. They were starting to look like heavy-metal rockers. Then there’s always the last-minute stationery supplies which somehow seem to run out right on the day before school starts.

This time, there was the added hassle of trying to buy up some essentials in bulk. I already have 5 bags of rice, two 5kg bottles of cooking oil, toilet rolls, toothpaste. I wasn’t sure if I should stock up on Milo as well since I still have like 10kg from my last bulk run .

I’ll probably grab some more stuff this weekend. But frankly, if fuel prices are going to go up every month, there’s probably only so much you can stock up. I always buy in bulk anyways so I guess it’s a matter of looking around for the best prices without having to drive out of my way to get them.

I’m sure a lot of us grew up collecting stamps for a hobby during our schooldays. Although I was an avid collector then, strangely enough I can’t seem to find my stamp collection now.

A friend of mine tells me she still have her stamp albums in good condition. She’s been keeping them for years and is now thinking of selling them on eBay.

She’s lately taken an interest in US Mint Coins and wants to start collecting those instead. Hmm, I guess coins have a higher value and she can always pass her collection down to her kids later. Makes sense.

When Skye was learning about money in her Math class at school, she asked me how many ways there are to save money. I guess most kids know of only one way to save money and that’s via a savings account.

But I told her that you can actually invest in gold and silver coins. I think she was pleasantly surprised that you can even get information about these coins online.

I showed her the gold coin my grandmother gave me as a present. It’s the only gold coin that I have, and I’m glad Skye got such a thrill out of looking at it all day.

It’s getting harder to dodge those credit card promoters at the mall these days. They descend on me in hordes and they seem to have become a permanent fixture, only promoting different banks.

A couple of months back, I got talked into signing up for one of those free-for-life cards. After I went through the whole charade of filling up the forms, my application got rejected. Well, good! Not that I needed another card, I was just tempted by the discounts and redemptions it offered, that’s all.

Last weekend, they were promoting Balance Transfer Cards. There’s no way I’m going to waste a half-hour of my shopping time filling out that heap of forms again. If I wanted such a card, I would apply online.

We walked past some jewelry stores when we were out at the mall this morning. They’re strangely quiet. I remember the time when gold was very popular during Chinese New Year and women would flock to the store to buy themselves something new to wear.

But these days, people are apprehensive about wearing gold because of the potential dangers of being robbed. For those who love gold but are too afraid to wear them, gold investing is probably a good alternative.

They can easily obtain gold bullion or ingots for investment from Monex Deposit Company. Gold is safer accumulating value in a vault than worn as jewelry, don’t you think?

It’s not easy for a stay-at-home mother to get back into the job market these days. A friend of mine is thinking of doing that after Chinese New Year but I just wonder what her chances are of securing a high-flying job similar to the one she held before.

She’s contacted an executive recruiting firm to help her look for suitable positions. I’m not sure if A.E. Feldman operates in this part of the world but I do know that they specialize in job placements from middle to upper management. It’s a really big help to talk to consultants who know the market and are able to provide the advice you need.

I teach my kids, on a regular basis, that they shouldn’t spend more money than they have in their pockets. This is a sound financial lesson to teach kids from the time they are young.

While it’s true that there are always Credit Cards For Bad Credit that they can apply for, complete with good rates and rewards, from sites like CreditCardSearchEngine.com, I still believe that kids should be taught to manage their money as soon as they’re old enough to do so.

You can always start with giving them an allowance and teach them how to manage that. Instead of you buying their small items, you could have them pay for them instead with your guidance.

I will be honest, I’ve always believed investing in gold bars is something that only the ultrarich can afford to do, and I still do. I’ve seen it in movies, of course, and I’ve often wondered how and where you would do something like this.

Apparently if you go to Monex Deposit Company, there’s a whole panel of financial advisors who can advise you exactly on how and where you can invest in gold.

See, if you’re rich, there’s nothing stopping you. I guess that’s what they mean by ‘money talks’. You just talk to someone and they’ll tell you what are the best investment options available on the market and you just go from there. It must be nice to be rich .