Quick scan of stories to put you in that Holiday spirit:

• Student gets Christmas surprise: A $53,000 robotic arm (Courier-Tribune)

• Secret Santa hits Detroit area for eighth straight year and hands out $14,000 to strangers (USA Today)

• This company lets employees choose which local charities to support (Quartz)

• In case you needed another reason to be generous…it’s good for your health! (Washington Times and Medical Daily)

• Time provided 7 acts of holiday season kindness in this story, including:
  • Restaurants feeding lonely people on Thanksgiving for free
  • Santa goes extra mile to make autistic child comfortable
  • Return of the layaway angels
    • HuffPost story about one of the layaway angels

• Great story here about a two-for-one shoe special that left an indelible impression on a young shoe salesman (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

• Guess who’s the most generous nation? Probably not who you might expect..from NPR

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.