Tag: Spending Season

Making the Best Moves to Get Your Dream Life

Before you get too far into the craziness of the Spending Season, take a few minutes to reflect back on the past year.

The next 6 weeks will be filled with the AdMan’s best efforts to get you to part with your hard-earned money. His one and only goal is to make you spend. Cash or credit – either one will do so long as you’re opening your wallet as often and as fast as you possibly can.

Here’s a little tip from me to you. Don’t spend money on things that don’t matter to you. Seriously. It’s okay to say “No” and to keep your money in your wallet.

And this is why now is such a good time to assess if you’re moving closer towards your dream life and your heart’s desires. Only you know what your dream life looks like. And your best shot of getting it is to be laser-focused on the choices you make with your time, energy, and money.

My blog is about personal finance so I’ll focus on the money-stuff. There’s are a lot of other inputs and factors that go into our money choices. I realize this. The truth is that I can only speak about my personal experiences and my own observations of the world. I don’t claim to be an expert in psychology. What I do know is that the first step to getting what you want is knowing what it is that you really want. Without that information, you’re kind of flailing in the wind.

If not now, when?

This question should be the one you ask yourself every time you think about going after what you really want. Tomorrow is promised to no one. There are no guarantees about the future. An amazing opportunity might come around again…or it might not. You have to be prepared to pursue your dreams every single day. And that starts by knowing exactly what they are.

The next step is to start saving & investing for your dream life. Maybe you want to run a cafe in Paris one day. If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll start working towards. First things first, you open a dedicated bank account for that dream. And you set up an automatic transfer to start filling that bank account. It might take you a few years to save up a sizeable sum, but so what?

The time will pass anyway.

Read that again. The time will pass anyway.

So start your automatic transfer today, and stick with it. While you’re working and saving and investing, you’re also going to start researching the steps you’ll need to take to make your dream come true. You’ll go online and search “How to own a business in Paris”. Maybe you’ll plan a trip to Paris and see it with your own eyes for a week or two. You’ll take French lessons or figure out if there’s an ex-pat community where they speak your language already.

And while you’re fleshing out your dreams, your money will quietly and consistently accumulating. It will be working for you 24/7. Keep adding to the pot. Don’t make withdrawals – just leave it alone. When the time comes for you to bring your dream to life, the money will be waiting for you.

Make smart choices in the interim.

I’m not telling you to save every nickel. What I am telling you is to stop spending money on things that don’t matter to you. Is eating out for lunch every day more important that your dreams? Would you rather buy your 27th sweater or take a course that gets you closer to the life you really want? Is it better to impress family, friends, and strangers today instead of being proud of and satisfied with the accomplishments of Future You?

You’re the only one who can answer these questions for yourself. After all, you’re the one who is going to live with the consequences of your choices.

As I said earlier, we’re heading into the full court press of Spending Season. You will be subject to advertisements on every single platform and they will all be exhorting you to your spend money. The unspoken promise is that spending all of your money is the secret sauce to having a “perfect life”. Believe me when I tell you, there’s no such thing as a “perfect life”. And even if such a thing existed, I highly doubt that it could be purchased at the mall. Oodles of gifts ensconced in reams of wrapping paper beneath a beautifully-decorated tree make for a lovely advertisement. The harsh trust is that they don’t give you what you really want, which is more than likely connection and community with the people whom you love best. Strong relationships built on trust, love, respect, and admiration aren’t bought with cash or credit.

Keep that in mind as the Spending Season moves into full swing. Don’t let the endless encouragement to spend detract from pursuing your dream life.

Back to my original point… It’s time to figure out whether you’re any closer to the dream life that you really and truly want for yourself. If the answer is not to your liking, then figure out what you need to change to get what you really want. Then go make it happen.

If You Don’t Need It, Then Don’t Buy It!

A very popular shopping day will be arriving near the end of November. How do I know this? Rest assured – the Marketing Machine will not allow me to forget about it for one single instant! Everywhere I go online, there’s an ad about the “low, low prices!” I’m encouraged to “act now” so that I don’t miss out.

Look… I get it. Retailers want to make money. To do so, they need us to give our money to them. That’s how the game is played.

I want you to win the game. So here are my rules for surviving the Spending Season financially intact.

  1. If you don’t need it, then don’t buy it.
  2. If you do need it, then it’s okay to buy it.
  3. If you do buy it, pay cash.
  4. If you pay off your credit card bills in full every single month, then you can use your credit card.

Those are the 4 rules to getting through the upcoming Spending Season. If you follow them, then the odds are very good that you will not suffer from a debt-hangover come January of 2024… which is only 6 weeks away.

Rule 1: If you don’t need it, then don’t buy it.

This rule applies to everything on offer. Clothes. Televisions. Place settings. Bedding. Electronics. Subscriptions. Furniture. Large appliances. Liquor. Home decor. Gaming systems. Computers. Vehicles.***

If you don’t need the bright-and-shiny whatever-it-is that is being advertised to you, then keep your wallet closed. Retailers hire marketing teams that are extremely skilled at convincing you to buy things that you don’t necessarily need. Think about it… Until you saw the ad appear on your screen, you probably hadn’t even thought about getting the next whatever-it-is. You were perfectly content going about the business of living your life and enjoying your day, when the ad popped up and suddenly you were thinking…

“Maybe I do need <insert bright & shiny whatever-it-is> now that this marketer has put this ad in front of my face.”

Do yourself a favor. If you didn’t need it before you saw the ad, then you probably don’t need it after seeing the ad. Scroll past the ad. Choose the text-only option for your reading pleasure. Don’t buy something if you don’t need it.

Rule 2: If you do need it, then buy it.

Obviously, there are those of you who do need to buy certain items. And getting you needs met at 60% off is a very sweet deal. Let’s say your winter boots are 5 years old and basically held together with tape and prayer. It’s time to replace them. This is probably a very good time to do so since clothing retailers are putting things on sale.

You know your situation better than I do. If you truly need to buy whatever-it-is, then go ahead and do so. After all, getting a discount is always nice when you have to buy something that you need. Discounts help your money go just a bit farther.

Just make sure that you’re following rule 3 when you make that purchase.

Rule 3: If you buy it, then pay cash.

Yes. You read that right. If you have to buy something, that’s no reason to go into debt for it. Pay cash. I’m hoping that you had the good sense to save up for your desired item first before making a purchase, i.e. the money is sitting safe and sound in your sinking fund. After all, this very special shopping day isn’t a surprise. Everyone knows that it comes up at the same time every year.

If you’ve been waiting for the discount, then surely you were wise enough to create a sinking fund for this particular purchase. Ideally, you’ve been squirrelling a little bit from every paycheque into a dedicated sinking fund to pay for the things you want this Spending Season.

Again, do not go into debt to make this purchase. The next six weeks are going to be a blur of opportunities to spend money. Many celebrations are going to be taking place. If you’re the one hosting, you’re going to be paying a tad bit more to feed your guests. And if you’re lucky enough to be one those said guests, then I’m assuming that you’re gracious enough to bring some kind of gift for the host/hostess of the event you’re attending. As for all of the various celebrations, there’s a good chance that some of them will involve gifting of some sort.

I call this the Spending Season for a reason. Do not go into debt trying to make everyone’s memories perfect. Buy if you must but spend cash when doing so. The beauty of cash is this – once it’s gone, it’s gone. There’s no lingering debt for you to worry about or on which you will be charged interest.

Rule 4: If you’re have the cash to pay off your credit card bill in full, then you can use your credit card.

This rule is only for those who pay off their credit card bill in full every single month.

You alone know if you’re one of these people or not. Be completely honest with yourself. Failing to pay off your credit card bill every single month means that you’ll be paying up to 29.99% more for every single one of your purchase. That’s 30% more! After a couple of months of compounding at 29.99%, that 60%-discount on your bright-and-shiny whatever-it-is will have been re-directed towards the accruing interest on your credit card.

So, if your sinking funds are stuffed to the brim with sufficient cash to cover your credit card bill, then buy your whatever-it-is with your credit card. Then pay your balance in full when the bill comes due.

That’s it.

Those are the rules for getting through the Spending Season without doing too much financial damage to yourself. Despite what the Ad Man and trusty sidekick, the Creditor, will tell you, there’s absolutely no impediment to your happiness if you resist the urge to spend money on things you don’t need.

Again, if you truly need something, then this is probably a good time to buy it since the discounts are flowing hot and heavy. Just don’t go into debt to buy whatever-it-is. Things are tough enough with inflation still ravaging your dollar. You don’t need inflation working in tandem with sky-high credit card interest charges. That’s like sticking two forks in your own eye! Ouch!

Don’t spend if you don’t have to. If you must spend, pay cash. And if you always pay your credit card balance in full every month, then it just might be okay to use your credit card.

That’s it – those are the rules. Wishing a very joyous, merry, happy Spending Season to All!

*** Yes – that’s right… vehicles. Today, I received an email offering me a “loyalty discount” on a brand-new luxury SUV if I bought it before Black Friday. For those who are curious, my “loyalty” is worth up to 1.5%. I laughed and laughed and laughed, then sighed,… and then I deleted the email.

We’re in the Final Quarter!

As hard as it may be to believe, there are roughly 90 days left in 2022. Does anyone else feel that life resembles a roll of toilet paper? In that the closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes? Honestly! It seems to me that we were just starting summer about 3 or 4 days ago .

Yet, here we are in the final quarter of 2022. We’re heading into Halloween, Thanksgiving, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas & New Year. And for some segment of you, there are various birthdays and anniversary celebrations thrown in there too. It’s the time of year that I’ve taken to calling the Shopping Season.

You may call it something else. No matter. My only question for you is: how are you going to pay for it?

I’m hoping that your upcoming celebrations and festivities will be funded by your money pots, aka: sinking funds, rather than by your credit cards. And if you do use your credit cards, please have the money already set aside to pay the bill in full. As you know, I love my credit cards and gleefully collect points each month. However, I would shred my cards in an instant if I didn’t already have the cash on hand to pay the bill in full each and every month.

Create a plan of attack for the Money Vultures coming for your cold, hard cash … I mean, draft a strategy that allows you to enjoy the Spending Season as you want to. Retailers are still trying to make up for those sales that were lost during the pandemic’s lockdowns. They will be particularly inventive and persuasive as they try to convince you that spending is the only way to show your love. I’m not telling you that you can’t spend your money. What I’m telling you is that you should be smart about how you do so. What things are most important to you? Who are the people who deserve to stay on your gift-list? Is there anyone who should be removed from your list? Are charitable donations important to you? If so, how much do you want to donate this year?

These are the questions that you should answering as we start the final quarter of the year. If you’re paid bi-weekly, there are only 6 or 7 paycheques left in the year. Take the time to figure out how much of each will be spent on the various events that you know will be coming up before 2022 rolls into 2023.

I know people who are absolutely enthralled by Halloween and acquire the most amazing costumes every year. Other people put lots of time into decorating their homes for Christmas. There are those who have to do a significant amount of travel in order to be with their loved ones over the holidays. The Spending Season is chock-full of opportunities to spend-spend-spend on everything for everyone!

It can be a financial disaster that derails all of your other money goals. You don’t have to let that happen. Nope! You have the power to decide how you want to spend your money during the next 90 days. Do not let the AdMan and the Creditor convince you that the only way to appreciate your loved ones is to bankrupt yourself. It’s not true. The people who really and truly love you do so because of who you are, not what you buy them.