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Wait, What?

Are you ready for Christmas yet? Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about it. Yes, Christmas. You know it’s only eight months away, right? You say you aren’t worried about it yet? Well, perhaps you should be. Please allow me to elaborate. And I will do so by starting with a question (okay, maybe a few questions).

How much did you spend for Christmas in 2020? How did you pay for it? Are you STILL paying for it?

Now you get to ask me a question (I’ll do it for you): Why are we talking about Christmas when it’s only April? Oh, I’m so glad you asked!

Too many people don’t plan for Christmas and end up going into debt for it. If you do that, Christmas ends up costing you a whole lot more than you planned on (for a review on how credit cards and revolving credit work, take a look at my blog post from September 5, 2019 entitled “Know the Difference”). The fact that Christmas comes in December every year should not be a surprise for anybody. I mean, it’s not even like Thanksgiving that keeps moving around all the time. Christmas is ALWAYS December 25.

So why is it most people don’t plan for it? Perhaps people don’t understand how much putting Christmas on credit cards really costs, but the reasons don’t really matter, in my humble opinion. My concern is to get people to STOP charging Christmas. The biggest question, now, would be, “How?”

First, you need to see how much you really spent last year, so take a look at your receipts, bank statements, or credit card statements. It’s okay to groan. Now, what did you buy that you can cut out this year? Think neighbor gifts, etc. I guarantee you can cut back SOMEWHERE! Plan on spending about what you spent last year less where you can cut. Take that figure and divide it by 9 if you get paid monthly or 18 if it’s twice-monthly or bi-weekly. Lastly, put that amount into a savings account THAT YOU WILL NOT TOUCH until it’s time to do your Christmas shopping. Check with your employer on this–some will set up an automatic withdrawal for you. Guess what? When December shows up, you’ll have some money to spend and you won’t have to put it on your credit card.

I highly suggest you continue to do this every month of every year. You will never have to worry about funding Christmas ever again.

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