Post-Holiday Financial Recovery: Bouncing Back from Seasonal Spending
The holidays are a season of giving, rejoicing, and celebrating. And sometimes, being joyous means having to spend some money. If you feel the pinch when the season ends, don’t worry! The following tips may help you get back on your feet after overspending on the holidays.
Take a Look at Your Spending
To be able to start fresh, the very first thing you need to do is account for exactly how much money you spend. If you haven’t already, look at your bank and credit card statements to get a good idea of where your money went. You might be surprised at how quickly you spend money. But you need to figure out the full extent of your spending to make a solid plan to, hopefully, get back on track.
Create a Payoff Plan
Make a monthly repayment plan by listing your debts and determining how much to pay each month. Also, try to pay more than your minimum payment on each debt. Each extra dollar lowers your total in the long run and saves interest expense. It is wise to set up monthly automatic payments from your checking account.
Cut Back on Extras
To help get some of your financial wellness back, you may want to forgo any extra spending for a few weeks (or even months). Cook at home more, avoid shopping trips, and cancel monthly subscriptions that aren’t necessary. Those small changes add up and free up money to pay off holiday bills more quickly.
Start a Savings Challenge
One of the easiest ways to rebuild your savings accounts after the holidays is by making it a challenge. One popular method is the 52-week challenge, where you save a dollar more each week. Start with $1 for the first week, then add $1 to save $2 for the second week, and so on. At the end of the year, you save $52 for the 52nd week.
If you do not miss any weeks, you end up with a surprising cumulative sum of $1,378 in savings.1
Another easy way to save is to fill a coin jar with all your change.
Plan Ahead for Next Year
With your holiday spending experience behind you, it’s a good time to plan for next year. Start a holiday savings fund, ideally early in the year. Set aside a bit of money each month to prepare for next year’s holidays; perhaps you may not have to go further into debt.
Final Thoughts
Your wallet might be thin from holiday spending, but some ways to quickly get back on your feet include breaking down your spending, creating a payoff plan, scaling back on extras, saving first, and planning ahead. If you follow these tips, you may return to a solid financial position sooner by managing your holiday spending.
Transform Your Money-Fears into Money-Loves!
Unlock your patterns, gain clarity and focus, and become supremely confident with money using my simple 8-step approach to changing your financial future.
Transform Your Money-Fears into Money-Loves!
Unlock your patterns, gain clarity and focus, and become supremely confident with money using my simple 8-step approach to changing your financial future.
Important Disclosures:
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, LPL Financial makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy.
This article was prepared by WriterAccess.
LPL Tracking #643923
Footnotes
1 What is the Sum of First 52 Natural Numbers? https://getcalc.com/math-sum-natural-numbers-1-52.htm
