Have a Financially Happy Holidays
The holidays are a wonderful time of year, but we all know that there is some stress that comes with them. From travel, to family, to the added expenses associated with all of it, the season becomes a lot to manage. And because everyone becomes busy during the holidays, there’s less and less time to manage the stress.
Your expenses don’t have to be the source of your stress, however. Organizing your finances will help you take control of your budget.
Budget for the month in minutes
Now we know what you’re probably thinking: “There is already enough happening during the holiday season—I can’t start a new budget project collecting receipts and tracking purchases.” Don’t worry, with our system, you’ll be done in less than an hour.
The first trick to organizing your finances is figuring out how much money you have. If you’ve signed up for online banking, then this should be a very easy step. Add up what you have in your accounts and subtract your credit card debt and any other bills you have coming up. This gives you a baseline budget.
Next, decide how much of that you want to spend this month. And don’t limit your thinking to gift-giving. Include potential expenses like travel, food and any entertaining you want to do. Make sure those expenses line up with your budget so that you’re not spending more than you should.
Holiday spending rule of thumb
How much should you spend? That’s entirely up to you, but a good rule of thumb from financial experts is to limit your holiday spending to 1% of your income. Make sure to compare that guideline to the baseline budget you just calculated to settle on a good budget for you this year.
Now you’re financially prepared to get through the holidays, which should be a good feeling. But don’t stop there. Here are a few simple steps you should take to organize your finances all year long, starting today:
Automate your bill payments:
- Figure out which of your recurring bills you can set up to autopay and enroll in them. This means that the bill will come directly out of your bank account and you can stop sending in checks. This also means that you’ll never have to worry that you forgot to send the check into the gas company ever again.
Automate savings
- Setting aside a small portion of your monthly income is a smart way to be prepared for any unexpected expenses or change in your employment. If you’re banking online, you can set your account up to save automatically, so a portion of every paycheck goes straight into a savings account. This is also a great way to save for a big expense like a vacation, or next year’s holiday expenses.
Get a financial tracker app
- It can be hard to keep track of all the financial accounts you may have and all the spending you do, so have your phone do it, instead. Financial tracker apps connect to your bank and your credit cards and allow you to see what’s going on with your money in the same amount of time it’d take to check your social media feeds. Actually, probably less time.
These apps also will help you see what types of things you’re spending money on, so you can decide how much of your budget should be going to online shopping or magazine subscriptions.
Going forward, if you spend a little time each month to go through step one and review where you are and make a budget for the rest of the month, your finances will never stress you out again.