Christmas time is here again

Years ago, buying presents for children at Christmas was a simple affair. All parents had to do to make their children happy was to provide them with a few oranges, nuts, chocolate and some wooden toys.

Today, as any parent with teenagers will know, children are a much more sophisticated, demanding lot. Having been brought up on a diet of console games, mobile phones and computer systems, many now eagerly anticipate the arrival of nothing less than the latest range of gadgets that the high-technology companies have on offer.

And there are certainly plenty of them to choose from. A year is a long time in the high-technology business, and if your children’s console, mobile or notebook computer is one year old, it goes without saying that they will be enthusiastically awaiting a newer upgraded version of the products in their stockings this year.

Faced with these uncertain economic times, however, many parents are now feeling less munificent that they have been in previous years. Some are now questioning whether their prior attitudes to providing their children with all the high-technology gadgets that their hearts desired might not have been money better spent.

Even parents with the necessary savings in the bank are asking themselves the true value of shelling out hundreds of pounds on updating the plethora of electronic gadgets that their children own – sadly reflecting upon a similar number of perfectly functional, yet sadly outdated, systems gathering dust in their cupboards.

Needless to say, despite their reluctance to pile yet more of their hard-earned pay into the snake-oil-filled pit of high technology, that’s exactly what they will do. Rich and poor alike will still feel the social pressure to put their hands into the pockets and to dig deeper into their savings or credit card accounts to provide their children with all the electronic gifts that they have been yearning for.

But pondering the effect that the incredible hike in future university fees over the past month will have on their bank balances, many savvy parents will also be considering how to best invest in their children’s future - as well as provide them with all the electronic wizardry on offer at this time of year.

And the parents in the know will have recognised that the same high-technology companies from whom they are purchasing this year’s Christmas presents might also be able to provide them with an opportunity to ensure the financial security of their children’s educational needs.

All because of the fact that most of these high-technology gifts are powered by batteries, which, for the most part, are made from lithium. The savvy parents then, are the ones that will not only be buying the high-tech presents, but also investing some of their hard-earned cash in a variety of lithium stocks too, since it’s clearly a metal whose worth will increase as a function in the number of high-tech products shipped.

That way, while the children enjoy their high-technology presents over the holiday period, the parents can rest safe in the knowledge that the cost of the children’s future will be partly paid for by the same industry that cost them so dearly at Christmas.

Dave Wilson
Editor, Engineeringtalk

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