i think this is a wonderful idea!!!!

from today's TIMES:

January 13, 2007
Basic Instincts
The Bride Became Debt-Free
By M. P. DUNLEAVEY
IF you stopped to name some recent innovations that had enhanced your quality of life, a few things might come to mind — Netflix, leave-in hair conditioner and the proliferation of those big cheap boxes of clementines. But would any financial services top your list?
Sure, it is great to be able to pay bills online or get your tax refund deposited electronically into your bank account. But like so many financial inventions, these add a layer of privacy angst for every ounce of convenience.
If only the great minds in personal finance would spend a few minutes in the shower dreaming up some clever solutions to common money problems. A few humble thoughts while we wait:
REGISTER FOR SOLVENCY The tradition of registering for gifts started out as a way to help young couples acquire basic items they would need to set up their new home: china, linens, a decent cocktail shaker. These days many couples marry later, and so are well equipped on the domestic front. Let’s establish a new tradition of registering for something really useful: debt payments.
Rather than request a knife set that costs more than their combined educations, couples could sign up with the local Debt Registry and ask their nearest and dearest to help pay off those lingering credit card bills. It is not as glamorous as owning a vacuum cleaner designed by NASA, but once their debt was paid off, couples could buy whatever appliances they could afford.
BUY A TICKET FOR RETIREMENT Financial experts marvel that millions of Americans are willing to squander their cash on lottery tickets but are reluctant to employ that same vision and persistence when saving for retirement.
Why blow against the wind? With pensions waning and Social Security ailing, what is needed is Retirement Powerball — a national game that would operate like a typical lottery, with more practical results.
People would buy a ticket and pick their magic numbers, then wait to see who wins a fully funded retirement portfolio. Each week’s jackpot would be divided among hundreds of individual retirement plans. The amounts would be allotted based on factors like your age and how much you had already saved, so that each winner’s portfolio would cover the basics, if not a luxurious life on a tropical island.
TUTOR FOR MONEY How to stem the downward trend in personal savings, the rising tide of consumer debt and vast numbers of bankruptcy filings — especially during the postholiday sale season?
Give people tax breaks for volunteering to tutor those less savvy about basic money management — as well as a deduction for those willing to sign up for financial literacy classes.
If the tax code will not permit such a loophole, perhaps we could adopt another popular method: for every hour you spend untangling your budget, or helping others to do so, you would earn rewards points — redeemable at dozens of national retailers.
FINANCE PARENTS It’s sweet of the Internal Revenue Service to give you the chance to check a box on your tax return to contribute to a national campaign fund. But who wants to put any more money into the political system?
Let’s keep the basic idea, but use those voluntary contributions to create a National Fund for Parents (N.F.P.), which would provide grants to people who needed time off to take care of their children or their own aging parents. The N.F.P. would be a much-needed supplement to the Family and Medical Leave Act — which gives people oodles of time off, without a dime of support.
ROLL OVER YOUR INSURANCE Health insurance premiums are high for a reason; insurers want to hedge their bets, so we all pay the price. Still, unless you need regular medical care, it is hard not to feel sick when you think about how much money you spend each year for a service you do not use.
If only there were a way to roll over some portion of the cost of your premiums to the next year — the same way you can roll over sick days or cellphone minutes or build a cushion in a Health Savings Account with the cash you do not use.
Some people might view this as an incentive to avoid medical care, but ideally the rollover system would motivate people to stay healthy so they could save money.
I’m not saying any of these solutions would be simple to carry out. But I am confident that if we tapped the same intellectual energy that went into developing the torment of those self-checkout kiosks in stores, for example, and used it for more useful amenities, your financial life and mine would be much happier.