This week I have 3 xmas spending money tips for you to help you avoid credit card shock in January. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, right?
Over the last six years, I have been sharing information and my thoughts about money, investing and your financial freedom journey.
It’s been a real pleasure to be in your inbox each week, something that I am very thankful for…
Money is something that I know is a difficult topic to discuss and for many people it creates serious angst in their life, especially at this time of the year.
My mission has been to make the topic of money easier to understand and for you to be more confident to manage your own financial freedom journey. Basically to demystify money and investing.
So as I celebrate six years of writing for you, and as we are about to start the festive season of xmas and new year celebrations, I thought it timely to review how you manage your money and xmas spending.
The festive season can be difficult when it comes to money.
There are ever growing expectations to spend more and more, which can be very difficult when credit card statements are already full and cash is limited.
Xmas Spending Money Tips
So here are my three tips to help you manage during this period, that I hope will help you manage your xmas spending.
Tip One
Spend some time to work out exactly how much you can afford to spend.
This will be the most difficult part of the process, because you need to be realistic. It is all well and good to want to buy everyone the latest and greatest gadget, but do you have the means to afford it?
Spending a little bit of time now determining how much you have available will be very helpful when it comes to the next tip.
Tip Two
Just like Santa, I suggest you create a list and check it twice…
Write out a list of people that you want or need to buy a gift. Once you have this list, start to allocate an amount that you intend to spend on each of the people on your list… and then add it up.
Now the tricky bit, compare the total on your list with the amount that you determined you could afford to spend from tip one.
How does that look now?
I suspect, if you are like virtually everybody, including me, the amount you want to spend exceeds how much you can really afford to spend.
Now the really hard part of the process starts. It’s decision time…
Do you overspend, because that’s what we do at this time of the year. Or, do you make the harder decision and revisit the list and adjust what you are going to spend for each person.
Or even harder, do you adjust who gets on your list? Are there people on your list that you can remove without it really being noticed?
I get it, we are generous people, but to avoid your own financial crisis, it might be necessary for your generosity to have its limits this year, just sayin’!
Tip Three
When you get out into the shopping malls and start doing your spending, this is a time for real ninja attentiveness.
You may already know this, but the shops are set up to get you to overspend, yep they actually design their shop layout to trap you.
Those relatively cheap items that are strategically placed near the counter and the queue area are not there because there is nowhere else to put them. No, they are there to get you to overspend.
Sneaky isn’t it…
The shops know that as you wait in line you will look at these items, and since they are only a few dollars, you think why not, they look nice, or aunty Marg will love that snow globe or flashing xmas ball.
Obviously aunty Marg doesn’t need another snow globe, but it looked so nice in the pretty package.
And boom, the shop got you. You have fallen into the trap and before you know it, you have spent $20 or more on stuff you don’t need. Since every shop does this, if you fall for the trap a few times, the little extra items can start to add up very quickly.
So avoid the retail shop xmas spending trap, or overspending trap I should call it, right?
Celebration Time
This festive season enjoy celebrating with your friends and family, and try to do it without the stress of over indulging in your xmas spending.
A little bit of planning and decision making before you unleash on the shops could just save you from credit card shock in January, and the stress of having to spend months paying off stuff you couldn’t afford.
And if you want to really shake up your financial goals, eliminate money stress and set yourself up for financial freedom starting in the new year, then you should definitely schedule a no-cost brainstorming call with me, where we can plan your financial future and I can show you how to add 7 figures to your net worth.
You can schedule a call here.