Have you ever wondered what the rich buy each other for Christmas?

What's there to get? If they have everything they need, how can you shop for them?

I know this rich family; well, they may not be the richest, but they are quite well off. More so than the next family; more than you and me. They live in a gorgeous home and for the first time in 14 years were recently mentioned in Forbes Magazine.

But there was something funny about this family. Parked in the driveway, in front of their 12 car garage, was a beat-up old Chevy that has had better days.  

The dad's Ferrari and the mom's Mercedes Vaneo would veer around it nicely, seemingly to ignore the beat up old junker like it was a hedge fund they knew would go south faster than Enron stock after Ken Lay fired all the Arthur Andersen accountants.

And that was puzzling because it didn't fit in with the decor.

Now the neighborhood was about as happy with the  driveway junker as with a country club bartender who never laughed at their jokes or a chat room addicted Nanny. They were paying big bucks where they lived and frankly weren't overjoyed with the eyesore relic.

They made numerous suggestions to the family that the rotting Chevy has to go or they won't make Fobes for a another 14 years and and if that happened then surely many of the loyal neighborhood supporters might begin leaving faster than Eagles fans down by 14 late in the third quarter.

But this year the family just didn't want to make Forbes, they wanted to rise to the top of the rich list like the peppermint schnapps in their creme de menthe. And everybody told them" "You can't do it with the junker in your driveway."

So the family hired a consultant and he looked at the neighborhood and the home and the junker and said the family has enough wealth that the junker really doesn't matter. He told them they should still rise to the top of the list in spite of it. In fact, he said, the family, if it wants to get to the top spot, should put their emphasis in not removing the junker but in putting their wealth in blue chip stock to bolster their portfolio.

Unlike many other families in the neighborhood, this rich family doesn't have a lot of younger internet stock which secures the future, or they trade the internet stock for more stable blue chip sfuff to help them rise to the top faster, like some of the families in Boston and New York do.

Now the consultant is an old school guy who is near retirement. So maybe he doesn't quite see that the true wealth of this family isn't getting any younger; and the family may have to sell some of its valuable portfolio to avoid paying astronomical taxes on several of its commodities.

So if this family has any chance of making the Forbes top spot, before some of its blue chip stock has to be sold, maybe this is the year.

Then why leave the junker in the driveway?

It proved to the family last year that it couldn't make the long drive or stop the gas from leaking out of its tank.

Get rid of the driveway junker!! Put a BMW in its place, and lets rise to the top next year! There may not be another year.