Dr. Richard Stephens
Do you expect to do some serious Christmas shopping this season? It’s almost past the time to plan how much you will spend and where you will spend your money. The average Jamaican family spends $20,000 or more each year on holiday gifts. Unfortunately, come January 2017 most of these consumers are often left with the financial issues to deal with, like credit card bills that they are unable to clear in one payment . If you plan your Christmas shopping budget now, you can save yourself a lot of financial trouble when the bills start arriving.
CASH OR CREDIT?
Unless you have the cash to offset it, one sure way to destroy any budget is to pay credit for purchases. Using a credit card is not wrong, it can even be a smart decision in some cases, but it can cause plenty of problems in the coming months if you do not have the cash available to pay the card.
Consider leaving the emotional side of the holidays out of it and stick to a plan, when the end of January 2017 comes you may have no bills to pay off or enough money in hand to pay them all!
Shop where there are SALES, even on the holiday season weekend. Great sales to get you in the spending mood are being put on by retail stores everywhere. Consumers spend all through the year; therefore, the week leading up to Christmas is an important week where big sales are often put on.
If you are part of a big family, you may want to consider buying gifts just for the Children. Put some sensibility back into your gift giving. Remember, the holiday is about the biggest gift of all: our savior. Plan now and you will also avoid the tremendous financial pressure when the bank statements arrive in January. Do not let your holiday shopping swallow you up with the excitement of the moment. Instead, come up with a reasonable plan to make your Christmas truly memorable and leave you with little or no financial problems for the New Year!
