Mary Hunt, whose on-line hints newsletter I have written about, said in a recent E mail that having a wish list lends credence to your desires and helps you to work toward having the things you want.

She says:
Once an item has remained at the top of the list for a period of time that you have designated for yourself, start saving for it, even if all you can put away is ten bucks a week. So what if it takes you a year to save for an iPad? You'll have a full 12 months to change your mind. If you still want it a year from now, you'll own it outright with no new debt.

Want to add a high-tech dimension to your Wish List? Go to SmartyPig.com. There, you can set up an online savings account to save for a specific goal. You'll have a lot of fun doing it. SmartyPig won't charge you any fees, and it will pay you an amazing interest rate, given today's economy. It will help you reach your goal even faster. And your money will be safe from you so you can't borrow it back in a weak moment.

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I offer this website for those of you who want to try it. But saving $10 a week for my no. 1 wish is kind of futile -- maybe she's writing for 15-year-olds. By the time I save $15,000 for a piano rebuild, I'll be too old to see the keys, let alone play. (I have a 1919 Mason-Hamlin golden age piano – every technician who has looked at it wants to buy it.)

Also nos. 2 and 3 and 4 on my wish list are also not silly little chochkas like an iPad. Paved driveway, kitchen remodel, remodel both bathrooms -- easily $25,000 if we did them all, maybe more. $10 a week won't cut it.

I am thinking that conserving your investment portfolio because in retirement you might run out of money before you are ready is probably wise, but it also means you never realize some of your wish list.

So I will have to content myself with just having my piano tuned and voiced periodically and it may never, while in my possession, sound the way it should if rebuilt by a truly knowledgeable piano man (one I know about in Tampa would do).

So color me “Waiting to win big in the Lotto”.

Xx, Teal