The aftermath of Christmas spending can be a source of financial stress. Many want to enjoy and join in the celebration during festive seasons but not all of us are ready to face the financial burden that comes after as a result of the lack of financial planning towards these seasons.
This article is to guide you on how to prepare money-wise for Christmas and New Year and also prevent you from going through the draining aftermath due to overspending in the festive period. These methods are proven creative and savvy ways of keeping your holiday seasons fun and fabulous.
Plan: An interesting option to enjoy festive periods is to plan ahead of time. Set spending limits, be realistic about your budgets, the essence of this is to ensure that while you are still doing things you love you are ensuring that your bank account is not hurt in the process. The idea of having a holiday full of spontaneous events and fun activities might look tempting, it will do your bank account a lot of good plan how these holidays will go and include activities that are very friendly and affordable to your budget. You can decide to have home-cooked meals, enjoy video games, go to the movies, give out thoughtful and personalized gifts to reduce costs.
Saving: Another way to be properly prepared for these seasons is to save by keeping holiday savings account or an account dedicated to saving for the holidays. Many people spend so much during festive seasons and end up paying up their post-holiday debts for months after. Although, this maybe a less sustainable and more difficult way of preparing but I will say it is better that just plunging in without proper financial preparation. Estimate the total amount of money that you are likely to spend and divide it across months or weeks, whichever is convenient for you and save. You can also decide to automate and lock your savings to make this easier to accomplish. This way, you get to spend extra money without regrets after Christmas.
Invest: This is not a common practice but it is definitely a smart move to make. If you know that you go overboard with spending during festive periods, one thing you can do is to estimate the total amount of money you are likely to spend. Taking in account all the interesting things you will like to try out, places you will like to go to and so on. Then, invest a specific amount of money in stocks, mutual funds, treasury bills and any other securities that suit your need. Ensure that the estimated return from this investment is more than/equivalent to what you plan to spend during this period. Then, plan to get your return close to when the Christmas/New Year period starts to cover your expenses. With this, you are able to plan and also prepare for these seasons and you don’t end up regretting your spending decisions during these periods because you were prepared and able to set money that is more than enough for these seasons.
Many people spend lavishly during Christmas and then start the new year on a broke note, always remember that you will bear the burden of the post-holiday debts and try as much as possible to avoid these debts with the tips stated above.
