4/14/2023 0 Comments Pay it down by jean chatzky![]() My kids would be all like, “Hey! That’s mines!”) I guess that you have to know your kids. ![]() Jean also mentioned using her kids’ unused gift cards from the year. As it is, sometimes we have to reign in their generosity so that our kids won’t become spoiled brats. They want to get the kids certain gifts so we let them (within reason). Certain family members have more expendable cash than we do. One other thing that she mentioned that I agree with is to ask others to get (or chip in to get) the big ticket items for your kids. babysitting) baking for loved ones and such. To lessen costs, she suggested: buying gifts for families rather than each person in the family giving out coupons for your services (i.e. Personally, I can tend to just focus on the gift aspect of the budget and overlook those “extra” things, but they really do add up! Just this week, I was getting input from my Twitter and Facebook fans regarding how to tip when you have several doormen, porters and such (like we now have). Don’t forget gifts for teachers, service people and such. Gift wrappings, postage, cards, decorations, big family meals, travel and such should also be considered. When setting your holiday budget, remember to include everything. To help set a realistic budget, you can find a holiday budget calculator on her site. As such, she suggests that people don’t spend any more than 1.5% of their take-home pay on the holidays. She shared the fact that people are still paying off debt from the last holiday season. On the call with Jean Chatzky, the following points stood out to me the most: (I’m doing well as a start-up, but it is not the same as having a consistent monthly paycheck.) Fortunately, we’re doing just fine, but it was important that we acknowledged the changes now so that we could plan accordingly for the upcoming year. However this year, our expenses increased (new apartment, etc.) and our income decreased. ![]() We were used to having a lot more “wiggle room” in our budget. My husband and I recently had one of those “financial conversations”. That is why most of us are spending less or at the very least, we are being more thoughtful about how we spend our money. There are few (to none) of us who have not been affected by the economic climate of our country. Since finances are consistently the number one holiday stressor, I was eager to learn how we (you and I!) could set ourselves up to win from the start. Although many financial-related topics were discussed on the call, the primary focus was on paying for the holidays. Fast forward to November of 2009 and I was happy to be a part of an audiocast that she hosted. I remember being impressed as she shared her various business insights. I first heard Jean Chatzky speak at a “Standing Out in the Crowd,” forum sponsored by OPEN from American Express back in November of 2006. When relevant, posts are sponsored or contain affiliate links.
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