The holidays are just around the corner. If you’re still looking for ideas for gifts, we’ve got a couple that can give your loved ones a head start on improving their finances and building wealth.

1. Personal finance books: there are plenty of books that can provide a basic introduction to personal finance, as well as those that can provide a more advanced education on investing and other money topics. There are a quite a few different authors and companies that routinely crank out books on financial topics. In particular, I would recommend the many Motley Fool books — there’s a book for just about every financial situation and they’re high quality with sold information.
2. EE Savings Bonds: The U.S. Treasury recommends EE Savings  Bonds as gifts — they’re reliable and low-risk investments. Personally, I think savings bonds are a particularly good gift for children, especially if you explain how the investment works. You can purchase EE Savings Bonds on the Treasury’s website, which we have discussed in depth. The site does not offer paper bonds, however — if you want to purchase the paper version, you will need to do so through a local financial institution.
3. Time: For some people, time (or lack thereof) is making it harder for them to achieve their goals. Maybe a friend or relative needs a babysitter or someone to cook up a few meals so that they can just get ahead of things. If you’re a little short on time yourself, you can purchase an absolutely amazing list of services both online and locally. A personal chef will come by, cook up a few meals and stick them in the freezer. A maid service will come by and take care of the laundry. Most companies will allow you to buy services for a friend or family member in a block and save them some time.
4. Money management software: I’m not talking about Quicken or other big software packages (although if it’s on someone’s holiday wishlist, more power to them). There are plenty of small money management tools that can help out in a big way. Shoeboxed, for instance, can get all your receipts organized for you. Expensr can help track expenses. There are thousands of other tools and at least one is probably perfect for your friends and family.
5. Anything business-related: If you want to give a gift to a family member with even the slightest entrepreneurial bent, ask what they need for the next step of their business. Maybe a year’s worth of website hosting can help them more than anything else, or maybe there’s something even more useful. Asking can help you find a gift that truly can move the recipient along the path to his or her goals.

Note that I didn’t actually include money in the list above. For some people it might make an ideal gift, but I know that others feel that a gift should be selected with a person in mind. I do think that money makes a better gift than a gift card, financially speaking: gift cards have so many limitations that cash isn’t subject to. Money is just more useful than a gift card.

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s pretty normal to see people gearing up for some major spending around this time of year. In years past, that has translated in to some pretty heft credit card bills in January. But at least a few people are working on having a credit-card free Christmas.

Rising Interest Rates

Many credit card companies have higher interest rates than they did this time last year. While the possibility of using a credit card remains an option, it’s getting a lot more expensive. Even if you only wait until February to pay off the balance, you could be paying your credit card company quite a bit for the pleasure. Even the rewards that many cards offer don’t equal the cost unless you can pay off your balance in the month that you do your spending.

Tightening Belts

Even if your credit card’s terms haven’t changed recently, you may have noticed that a lot of people are tightening their belts for this year’s holidays. That doesn’t mean that we’re backing down on gift giving — most people will do everything they can to continue to give gifts even in an economic crunch. But there will be more handmade gifts this year, as well as careful shopping for sales.

A Holiday Without Cards?

There’s another card that will be making a reduced appearance this year: the gift card. Concerns about the stability of several major retailers makes a gift card a risky choice. Chances are increasing that recipients just won’t be able to use the full value of a gift card. The thought of using a credit card to purchase a gift card that won’t be used makes it an even more uncomfortable choice. If your goal is to help a friend or family member make a purchase, there is a far more stable option — cash.

Fewer Cards

According to eBillme (an online shopping option that allows users to pay cash), credit card use is dropping significantly this season:

Index results for the fourth quarter show that the credit crunch is causing shoppers to reduce their credit card usage and impacting consumer access to credit, resulting in a shift to cash alternatives.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing that we’re using our credit cards less, though. The average American household with at least one credit card has nearly $10,000 in credit card debt. The first step for any of us looking to reduce that debt is to put the credit cards away. It’s virtually impossible to pay off credit card debt when a person is still routinely using his or her credit cards for purchases — especially for a holiday gift shopping spree.

There are plenty of options for giving gifts that cost surprisingly little: we can give the gift of time or craft a gift for our loved ones. And if we do so, we get a gift of our own: the chance to avoid taking on credit card debt for the sake of the holidays.

Are you going to have a credit-card free holiday season?

Popularity: 14% [?]

Halloween is this week: according to my calendar, that means it’s time to start booking tickets home for Thanksgiving, planning my Christmas shopping and generally getting ready for the holidays. It also, unfortunately, means that the time of year when I spend the most money is just starting. I have cards to mail, presents to buy — even dinners to plan. And with the way the economy is looking these days, I’m just not sure how far my holiday dollars are going to stretch.

I know plenty of people are thinking about cutting back on Christmas this year. It’s not anyone’s favorite way to save money, but it is effective. The other options for reducing the impact that the holiday season has on your finances tend to involve saving up throughout the year: Christmas Clubs and other specialized savings accounts are meant to spread out the cost of presents and such throughout the year. Personally, though, I don’t think that such specialized savings account really provide that much benefit. In general, the way that a Christmas Club account works is simple: a certain amount of money is moved from your bank account every week — often around $25. Around Nov. 1, your bank cuts you a check for the amount that has accumulated through the year, and perhaps a small amount of interest. It’s that small amount of interest that bothers me — most banks offering Christmas Club accounts offer minimal returns on that dough that you’re saving up for the holidays.

You’d be better up saving on your own in most cases: putting the money in a higher yielding savings accounts or buying CDs. I’d rather a CD personally — the useful factor of a Christmas Club account depends on getting money out of your account and making it harder to spend. It’s out of sight and out of mind until you actually need it. The tough part about using a CD is the length of time you’re planning to hold it for and the initial balance: many banks require at least $1,000 for a CD, with a minimum term of one month. The interest rates get significantly better the longer you plan to hold a CD. It’s possible to find a combination of terms that work for you, but putting together $1,000 can be problematic.

The option of setting up an automatic withdrawal that mimics a Christmas Club account is also an option. You’ll have to put the money into a normal savings account. That’s not necessarily a problem: I prefer to just have my holiday savings out of reach, but that’s a personal preference. If you’re comfortable keeping that money in your savings account, go for it — it will certainly simplify matters. No matter whether you go with your own savings account or with a CD, you’ll still be getting a better return on your money than the terms of most banks’ Christmas Clubs offer — and you’re still making the holidays easier to pay with in the long run. You can even avoid some credit card debt this way, and that’s never a bad thing.

Popularity: 13% [?]