Foolish Gift Guide Pt. 2
Software, Gadgets & Other Cool Stuff
December 17, 1997

Dear Santa,

I've finished my shopping and I'm ready for you to bring the rest. How are the elves doing on that new MMX Technology? Did Bill Gates's special training session for them pay off?

In case you're having to go to outside vendors for some of those techie things, we've got some ideas to make your shopping easier. This week we're going to continue with our Foolish Gift Guide by letting you in on our favorite software and gadgets. And for those of our readers who missed our first installment last week, don't forget to check out our picks on Books and Toys and our unadulterated plug of items of Foolish Cool Things in FoolMart.

This week we've got great software ideas for Little Fools who want to learn about money and software ideas for Big Fools who want to learn about money. Then we've made a list of some of the gadgets that we've come across that help us keep track of all that money we're learning about.

If you are venturing into ordering online for the first time, don't skip our 10 Tips this week. We tick off 10 ways to be safe in the era of cyber-shopping.

And finally, we thought you'd get a kick out of the PNC Bank Christmas Index in "The Real Cost of Christmas." Those number crunching geeks at PNC have actually figured up what it would cost to give all the gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas. Inflation seems to be in check (only up 1.12% from last year), but labor costs were up dramatically with the new contract for dancers in the "10 Lords a Leaping."

Good luck shopping, Santa!

--Trudy Hoyden
(TMF Hoyden)

(c) Copyright 1997, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool.