I often give my grandchildren gifts of cash. I don't mean just at Christmas or on their birthdays. Maybe I'll take them to the local market, or to a fair, or to a shopping mall. Obviously they're going to both want and need money to spend. Giving them gifts of cash is something I do often for them. There are no strings attached, they may spend the cash gift however they see fit. Ah, I hear you say, that is OK - it's family. Yes that is true, so let's look further.

I was down at our local shopping mall the other day where a young boy, maybe around 16 years old, was asking passers-by to help him fund a trip to a sports event overseas by way of giving cash to him. He was a top performer at his chosen sport and had been chosen to participate in the overseas event. The problem for him was that he had to come up with his own travel and accommodation costs. When I spoke to him he told me that he had been at the mall for the past week and he had raised about a quarter of the money he needed, all gifts of cash from people he did not know. Ah, I hear you say, that's OK - it's for a good reason.

Let's look at it this way. In both of the above examples we are giving cash to others because we have come up with a legitimate reason in our heads for doing so. That reason fits in with our individual values system, or our particular set of morals or ethics. For us, that makes the gifts of cash in both of the examples a valid choice and decision.

Of course, the amount of the cash gift is usually quite small, maybe between $5 and $30 or so. So we really don't need to think too long and hard about it, or worry too much as to how it's going to be spent, or even if it's going to be spent by the receiver of the cash gift on what he said he would spend it on. We simply give the gifts of cash and think no more of it.

I love to help people, my husband complains that I'm too generous at times, particularly when he adds up the amounts of cash I've given all the grandchildren at Christmas time. The point I want to make here is that I'm one of those people who gets a real thrill when I see the face of a cash gift recipient light up, or receive a thank-you email from a recipient out there in cyber world.

For those of you who would like to try this, my advice is always to start small, there is just no valid reason for starting out big. You can become involved in cash gifting for as little as $25, and in one particular company that amount is actually 5 cash gifts of $5 each.

So you can see that you need not fear becoming involved in a cash gifting community. You're certainly not going to lose your shirt, and you're certainly going to make somebody's day when they receive your cash gift. What a neat thing to be able to do.