Gentlemen listen up! The old adage, “it’s the thought that counts” is one hundred percent true. While flowers and chocolates make nice anniversary presents, they’re hardly special. Give her a gift that truly says, “I love you” by applying these three simple gift-giving techniques: make it personal, get creative and present it properly. With these easy-to-follow steps, you’ll be sure to knock the socks off of the woman you love.

She’s not generic, so her present shouldn’t be either.
Flowers, chocolates and jewelry are so expected. Sure they’re nice to receive, but when you think about it, do they really say “I know you” and “I love you”? Didn’t think so. Take a few moments right now to think about your wife and her hobbies. What does she enjoy doing in her spare time? Does she love cooking? Taking bubble baths? Shopping? Pinpoint just one of the things she loves doing and then select a gift that correlates to that action or hobby. If she loves cooking, for example, get her a beautiful cookbook or a subscription to Food and Wine Magazine. If she’s a bather why not buy her a selection of bath salts, bubbles and lotions. This technique can be applied to nearly any hobby she might have. But don’t stop there. You can take your gift to the next level with a little bit of creativity.

Apply a little creativity.
Let’s say that you’ve purchased a new cookbook for your wife, the aspiring chef. With just a little more effort you can make the gift even more thoughtful and exciting to receive. Open up the book and select one of the recipes from its pages. Now, hop on over to William’s Sonoma and get her a few of the utensils that the recipe suggests using or go to the market and purchase a some of the spices it calls for. Need another example? Add some scented candles and a smooth jazz CD to the bathing salts and lotions you’re getting your bathing beauty. It’s simple really, but with a little extra effort and a couple more components, you’re turning an already personalized gift into an even more thoughtful one. Now, one last component: packaging.

Presentation goes a long way.
Presentation is half the fun of gift giving and receiving. There’s a reason why women love getting a present from Tiffany & Co. as opposed to any other jeweler. Receiving their signature Robin’s Egg Blue box is almost as exciting as the treasure that lies inside of it! Try individually wrapping each of the gifts you’ve selected rather than throwing them unwrapped into a gift bag. With multiple gifts to open there are multiple elements of surprise to be had. Take it one step further and number each gift in the order of which you’d like her to open them. Then present her first with a numbered card that has a clue assigned to each number as to what each gift will be. You can even pepper your clues with a little romance. For example, wrap your cookbook and number it “1″. Then put a 1 on the card and write something to the nature if “Here’s to a future of candle-lit dinners.” No need to be long winded, just have a little fun with it and she’ll have fun, too.

Now doesn’t that leave flowers and chocolates out in the dust? With a little effort and thought you can easily give a gift that truly says, “I love you”. Just remember to make it personal, be creative and don’t forget about presentation. By following these three steps you’re pretty much guaranteed a happy wife. And a happy wife makes for a very happy anniversary. Now, get shopping!

Problem solving is not for the weak or the faint of heart. Problem solving is not for the pessimist or negative person. Problem solving takes one with strength of character, a touch of brilliance and a can do attitude, it takes an optimist with brains. Beware the self-proclaimed problem solver who thinks problems are only solved through nicely formatted committees, with all sorts of positive comments and accolades, it simply is not so.

In fact studies have shown that committees generally cannot solve problems as fast as individuals with vision and genius can. You should beware of the self-proclaimed positive Problem Solving Guru who knows it all and you should run if this so-called guru presents Negative Remarks in order to get all the members in the group on the same page. Sometimes problem solving requires information that crosses domains and folks of a wide variety of thought.

If the groups are too congenial they miss the opportunities before them. This is why an individual can often out smart a committee, if they have an open mind and draw from a wide variety of experiences and observations in life. If the group leader cannot handle complex thought or a divergence in thinking in the group, you have the wrong moderator, group leader or guru psychologist. Dump them quick.

The goal of coming up with solutions to problems is not getting everyone to think the same. If that were the goal you do not need the group just find the person who thinks the way you do and ask them to make the decision and stop wasting everyone’s time and save the money on the self-proclaimed “uniter” consultant for hire. Think on this.

Many people do not understand that you can negotiate when you buy a house too. Just because the amount is huge or because the people opposite you look formidable, you don’t have to be scared to negotiate. In fact, most of the salesmen quote a slightly higher rate as they expect you to negotiate.

Most of the new high rise apartments have a price tag + a price for floor rise. For example, the rates currently at Khandivili (Mumbai, India) are around Rs 6000 + Rs 20-40 per floor rise. So, a house at the 10th floor would be around Rs 6200-6400 per square foot.  

Recently, I was talking to a salesman of a reputed builder, who happens to be a friend of mine, about what negotiations go on and what results. Though I knew he wouldn’t disclose all, he gave away one secret – most builders do away with the floor rise during negotiations. So, you should not worry about floor rise prices when you desire higher floors.           

Apart from this, you can also negotiate for the price per square feet. However most builders are not comfortable doing this as they feel it would lead to a falling trend or a reduced image for their company. The price is not the only thing that you can negotiate. There are heaps of other costs that you will incur relating to your house and you can try your hand in negotiating for them too. For example, 

i)   A reduction in the price of the parking that you purchase

ii)  A reduced booking fee

iii)  A reduced cancellation fee

iv)  A request to bear the stamp duty and registration fee. (Many resale dealers accept this !)

v)  If your builder is an interior decorator/ has experts on his payroll, you can negotiate and get him to make modular kitchens/ bedroom cupboards etc. for your new house. My brother-in law has got himself such a deal for his new house in Chennai.

So, don’t limit yourself to negotiating only for the price of the house. If things don’t work well in that dimension, try the other ones I have listed above.

Do you have anything more to add to the list that has helped in your real estate negotiations?