How to tell if you're giving someone else a good gift.

Getting someone else a gift is really easy now a days. How easy? Just hop on Amazon, find something cheap, and order it.

But how do you know it's a good gift?

There's actually a pretty simple rule.

The perceived dollar value of the gift divided by the amount you spent on the gift must always be greater than one.

For instance:

If I buy you a $20 gift card, and I spend $20 on it, the value of it is $20 / $20 = 1. Not good.

Worse yet, if it's for a place you don't visit often, you may perceive the value of the gift card to be less than $20 making the gift worth less than 1.

Now let's say that I manufacture or wholesale shirts, and they typically sell for $50. Let's say it's your cost is $20, and it's a shirt that you know the receiver will wear.

$50 / $20 = 2.5. Good gift.

Let's say you don't manufacture or wholesale, well, anything. Well, you have to use your head a bit. What does that other person like, and what would they value at more than the cost for you to buy it?

One idea is to have something personalized. Put their photo or their name on something (that's not cheesy). Personalized items (that the receiver will use or cherish) are worth way more than their face value to them because putting their name on it makes it worth much more.