Get 'Sorted' Financially With enableMe Before Christmas Rather Than in the New Year

The New Year should be a time for celebration, and taking time off to enjoy the summer holidays, but often it’s a time of financial stress. At Christmas we tend to splash out on gifts, Christmas dinner and a holiday, even if we don’t intend to! But this can result in financial pain in the New Year. That’s why enableMe recommends getting sorted before Christmas, rather than cringing when you open the bills in the New Year.

We all tend to fund the festive season’s spend with our credit cards, and Canstar estimates that about 65% of that will incur interest.  With an average interest rate of 20%, this means Christmas quickly becomes even more expensive than we estimated it would. So, enableMe asks the question, “How can you create a Christmas to remember without running up credit card bills you’d rather forget?”

It sounds simple, but the first step is to work out what the holiday season is likely to cost, and it’s amazing how many people don’t do this basic step! Work out how many people do you need to buy gifts for, what the budget is for each gift, and how much you expect to spend on festivities and your holiday.

Ideally, you should just cut up your credit card because it forces you to only spend money you’ve actually got! If you can’t manage this, enableMe has some ideas to help you manage your money better over the Christmas season.

Make a yearly pact with the rellies to buy useful stuff for the kids, rather than tons of toys, and keep the costs down by putting everyone’s name in a hat and have everyone buy for the person they draw out, with a set budget. You can also spread the cost of the Christmas dinner by asking your rellies to bring a plate (and a bottle). Being generous is a great quality, but giving more than you can afford, year after year, will only ever deliver you one result: debt.

The helpful team at enableMe urge you to go and see them now, before you get onto the rollercoaster ride that can be the Christmas season, and for more information on financial advisors Auckland, retirement investment, financial investment and money coaches please go to http://enableme.co.nz .