The holidays can push budgets past their limit as people do more entertaining, attend more events, dine out and participate in gift exchanges. Whether you’re gathering in person or celebrating at a distance this year, it will be tempting to overspend. Here are some tips to help you plan for a less financially hectic 2021 holiday season.
Create a holiday budget
The last month of the year offers many opportunities to splurge. Prevent unfettered spending by setting a “do-not-exceed” dollar amount for holiday-related expenses. Include all purchases tied to the season, from gift giving to refreshing your holiday wardrobe, buying decorations, entertaining and more.
Track your expenses
A budget is only useful when you track your expenses against it. Keep receipts for purchases and tally expenses at the end of each shopping excursion. Check your totals to make sure you’re not exceeding your budget — and are prepared to make returns if you have.
Manage your expectations
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect global supply chains, causing disruptions in many different and surprising product categories. Merchants of all sizes will have product shortages and may offer less merchandise choice overall. Prices will be higher too, driven by increased demand, inventory shortages and higher than normal inflation. And don’t expect fire sales as we get closer to the holidays. Retailers will be unlikely to discount product that’s flying off the shelves.
Shop early
More than ever, this year you’ll want to give yourself plenty of time to do your holiday shopping. Both brick and mortar and online stores will be affected by the supply chain challenges. Be flexible. You might have to spend more time looking for what you want. You may need to switch gears if you can’t fulfill your initial wish list. And if you need to ship your gifts, keep in mind that the holidays always cause shipping delays, but this season the slowdown is predicted to be greater than usual.
Plan for increased shipping costs
In addition to inflated prices on general merchandise, shipping costs are spiking upward as well. The U.S. Postal Service has announced price hikes, and other major shipping carriers are also raising their prices to counteract higher oil prices and staffing shortages.
Give differently
If the gifts you want to buy are in short supply or “things” aren’t your thing, consider ticking off your gift list by giving experiences. Local restaurants are eager to make up for months of lost business. Likewise, theaters and sporting events are finally opening up and need to fill seats that have been empty too long. You could also consider giving financial gifts to your loved ones such as a partially funded savings account, Roth IRA, savings bond or an appointment with a financial advisor. And finally, charitable donations are becoming more popular as holiday gifts, particularly if the non-profit is meaningful to the recipient.
Bronwyn Martin is a financial advisor and chartered financial consultant with Martin’s Financial Consulting Group, a financial wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC. in Kennett Square, and Havre de Grace, Md. She specializes in two fee-based financial planning and asset management strategies and has been in practice for more than 21 years. To contact her visit www.ameripriseadvisors.com/bronwyn.x.martin
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There’s no shortage of great personal finance advice out there. The problem is figuring out whether or not it applies to you.
“Personal finance is personal before it’s financial,” Talaat McNeely told me during an interview earlier this year. McNeely is the co-founder of the site His and Her Money, which he runs with his wife, Tai. I’ve found this idea to be a helpful way to think about your finances and life in general.
There is no single tip or money hack that will instantly change your life. But some principles and concepts can put you on the path to achieving your goals. You’ll just need to figure out a way to apply them to your unique situation.
Here are the most impactful lessons I’ve learned during my time as a personal finance reporter, and how I’ve applied them to my life. These tools and concepts helped my wife and me set aside over $20,000 to pay off student loans (once interest resumes next year), build our emergency fund, and feel less stressed about our financial future.
A good budget should manage not only your expenses but also your emotional relationship with money.
5 Things I Learned as a Personal Finance Reporter
Since launching NextAdvisor in the middle of the pandemic, our biggest priority has been sharing actionable advice readers can use right away in their daily lives. In the course of fulfilling this mission, we’ve learned quite a lot about ourselves.
Here are four personal finance concepts my wife and I have incorporated into our everyday approach to finances, plus one strategy we plan to use when we are ready to buy a house.
1. Budgeting Is About More Than Just Managing Money
For years my budget was a homemade spreadsheet I updated sporadically in hopes of becoming a young Warren Buffet. It rarely worked as well as I wanted. In theory, my budget should have turned me into the ultimate saver. But what frequently happened was: I’d update it once a month only to find out I’d overspent on eating out. And it wasn’t helping me feel any less stressed about money.
One of the first stories I wrote for NextAdvisor was about creating a budget, and that is where I discovered zero-based budgeting (ZBB). Once my wife and I started using the zero-based budgeting method, we didn’t just start saving more but also began to feel less worried about money. In my experience, a good budget should manage not only your expenses but also your emotional relationship with money.
Piper after his surgery. He hated the cone of shame, so we put him in a baby onesie.Jason Stauffer/Getty Images
With ZBB, every dollar that comes in is given a purpose. We assign funds to pay for rent, cellphone, and other expenses. But we also assign money for more than just our current bills. This strategy helped us pay off student loans sooner than we expected.
ZBB also helped us build an emergency fund for the first time in my life. When the cat needed a $2,000 emergency surgery this past summer, we already had that money set aside. If we hadn’t had an emergency fund, this surprise cost would have been a setback for other goals. Since this money was already set aside, it didn’t negatively affect our other financial obligations.
We’ve been using the zero-based budgeting app You Need a Budget (YNAB) for almost a year and a half, and we absolutely love it. This app has effectively turned our credit cards into debit cards, which is important because I’m a full-blown travel credit card junkie. When I enter a credit card purchase into the YNAB app, the funds are immediately assigned to pay off that card. So even though I won’t actually pay the credit card bill for up to 30 days, the budget tells me that money is no longer available to spend.
How to Find a Budgeting Strategy That Works for You
If you want to try zero-based budgeting for yourself, I think YNAB is a great place to start. It’s important to note that it’s not free. But there are plenty of free or cheap ZBB templates available. And ZBB isn’t the only budgeting method that works. As you explore different approaches to budgeting, zero in on why you want a budget in the first place. A budget can help reduce financial stress, and get you closer to your goals without turning you into Ebenezer Scrooge.
2. Prioritize Income Over Expenses
There is a limited number of Starbucks lattes you can cut from your budget—but an unlimited number of ways to make money.
I’ve talked with people who’ve paid off their mortgage in under six years and conquered six-figure sums of debt. One common thread from these success stories is they find ways to make more money. They start side hustles, businesses, or find better paying jobs. Having a budget that works for you is still the first step. But if you don’t net enough income after expenses, then saving for anything else will be a struggle.
My wife and I are expecting our first child in 2022, and for us, it’s as important as ever to increase our household income. My wife is considering a move from freelance to full-time work, which would provide a more stable income. From there, we might explore other freelance or side hustle opportunities.
How to Increase Your Income
Starting a side hustle might not be as challenging as you think. Chances are you already have interests and talents you could use or develop to boost your income. One great bit of advice Marc Russell shared with me was to repurpose the skills from your current job into a side hustle. Russell is the creator of the personal finance Instagram account Betterwallet. “As long as there’s no conflict of interest with your current job, you can go off and create your own thing on the side and get paid for it,” he said in a previous NextAdvisor story.
3. Negotiating Can Be As Simple As Asking
The thought of negotiating has always terrified me. My idea of a good negotiator has always been a former Navy SEAL or pro athlete, someone who’s in control, confident, and used to winning. In reality, negotiating is often as simple as asking for what you want. Crafting a good offer sometimes includes offering something of value in return.
I’ve never asked for much of anything, much less a discount on my housing costs. Recently, I was looking to move into a new apartment on a short-term 3-month lease. I emailed my current property managers to ask about two units downstairs I knew were vacant. I asked if either unit would be available for a short-term lease and I gave them valuable information, reminding them the one apartment had been vacant for over a year. Then I offered to pay all three months upfront if they would reduce the rent.
Now I’m paying over $150 less a month and my landlord has $4,000 more than before I asked for what I wanted.
How to Negotiate More Frequently
Any negotiation is better than no negotiation. Find an approach that could help you ease into it and be more comfortable. Try making an indirect request and see if that’s easier for you. Instead of coming out and saying you want a pay raise, ask your manager something along the lines of, “what have people in my position done in the past to help increase their pay?” At the very least, it gets the conversation started. You’ll never get something if you don’t ask for it in the first place.
4. Be Patient and Consistent. Change Takes Time
Changing the trajectory of your finances takes time.
That can be disheartening to read. Everywhere you look it’s one headline after another highlighting the youngest millionaire or someone who went from insurmountable debt to financial freedom in less time than it took to read their bestselling book.
Life is a marathon, but we only see the last few hundred yards of other people’s victories. Almost all financial achievements are preceded by a long period of learning and building momentum. Whether it’s learning to code before becoming a tech entrepreneur or saving up for a down payment on a house, meaningful changes take time.
If you can only take small steps, just keep taking small steps. It can be tough seeing how fast everyone else seems to be moving. What’s not obvious is how much time it took them to develop the speed you’re seeing. Understanding how much time is involved in making meaningful improvements is the foundation for positive financial decisions.
How to Use Time to Your Advantage
The best way to get time working for you is to start now. Start small, start slow, start without it being perfect. Then your job is to continue what you started, however slowly you’d like, and to learn and make adjustments along the way.
5. Prospective homeowners: Ask about a zero-cost mortgage
While reporting on mortgages, the most overlooked strategy I’ve come across for reducing your mortgage cost is to ask for lender credits in exchange for a higher interest rate. In this situation, the credits would be used to cover the loan fee portion of your closing costs. A zero-cost mortgage means you’d be paying a lot less out of pocket every time you buy a home or refinance.
Here’s why I plan to get a zero-cost loan:
By reducing the upfront cost I’ll have more liquidity.
What I would have spent on upfront closing costs can be used to pay down the mortgage balance, invest in a retirement fund, or set it aside for unplanned home repairs.
If I move or refinance a combined six times in the next 30 years, I’d pay closing costs (3{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}-6{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the loan) six times. So for me, taking the higher interest rate with a zero-cost loan is cheaper because our future plans aren’t set in stone.
When researching lenders, ask if they have a zero-cost loan option. Compare your options and see which one makes the most sense for you. In my experience, the zero-cost mortgage is not as common or widely advertised. Also, the zero-cost mortgage is different from a no-closing-cost mortgage. A no-closing cost mortgage is when the closing costs are rolled into the total loan balance.
How to Pick the Right Mortgage for You
Any time you take out a home loan, you’ll want to be sure that you understand all your options. Ask a lot of questions and work with a professional who will help you understand your options, rather than just someone who gives you “the answer.” In my experience, most borrowers are overly concerned with the mortgage rate and overlook the closing costs. Interest and closing costs can be easy to miss because they might be added to your loan balance, but you’re still paying even if you’re not paying out of pocket when you close.
Bottom Line
The above practices have given me the patience I needed to establish financial habits that will last a lifetime. They worked for me. But it doesn’t mean you should take the same approach. If nothing else, use these concepts to start thinking about how you can approach your finances differently or to start asking questions you hadn’t considered before.For more information, check out this library of resources on NextAdvisor’s savings page.
Financial setbacks can happen to the best of us. Maybe you racked up debt that’s now leaving you with expensive monthly payments on your credit cards. Or maybe you had to deplete your savings account when an unexpected bill arose that couldn’t be put off.
These situations are often unavoidable, and they can be difficult to recover from. Here’s how to move forward following a financial setback and put yourself on a more positive path.
1. Figure out why it happened
In some cases, it’s easy to see why a financial setback occurred. If you got hurt or sick and racked up $15,000 in medical bills, that may have forced you to empty your bank account. That’s certainly not something you can be blamed for.
But sometimes, financial setbacks can occur through a series of more subtle events. Say you recently moved to a city a bunch of your friends live in, only they earn more money than you do. It could be that over the past number of months, you overspent in an effort to be social and keep up with their lifestyle, even though your income doesn’t support it. Now you could be sitting on an uncomfortably large credit card balance. You’ll need to work on adjusting your financial behavior in order to move forward.
To be clear, peer pressure is a tough thing to overcome, and you shouldn’t necessarily beat yourself up if that’s the reason for your setback. Rather, the key is to understand how you got to this place.
2. Put yourself on a budget
Whether you need to replenish your savings, dig out of debt, or boost your credit score following a massive hit, sticking to a budget is a good way to move forward from your financial setback. Take a look at your bank and credit card statements from the past six months to see what your various bills cost. Then, list them on a spreadsheet (or use a budgeting app) and compare them to your earnings.
Ideally, you should not be spending your entire paycheck month after month, especially if you’re trying to dig out of a financial hole. If that’s the case, you may need to rethink some expenses in an effort to cut back.
Learn more: The Complete Guide to Budgeting Methods
3. Boost your income with a side job
Chances are, an influx of money will help solve whatever financial setback you encountered. If you had to deplete your savings, an extra wave of cash could make your account whole again. If you’ve racked up debt, you’ll need funds to pay it off. And if your credit score took a hit, chances are, it’s because you were late with bills or started using too much of your available credit. And again, having more money could help ensure that you can pay your bills on time and chip away at your existing debt.
As for where that magic pile of money will come from, a good option is to get yourself a side hustle on top of your main job. These days, there are plenty of side gigs to choose from, so think about your personality and schedule to help you narrow down your options.
The sooner you move on from a financial setback, the better. These tips should help you stage your personal recovery, and they may also help alleviate a fair amount of stress to boot.
For former NFL player Adewale Ogunleye, seeing anyone, let alone athletes, struggle to manage money boils him to his core.
So, he is doing something about it.
Knowing that the average playing career in the NFL is less than four years, Ogunleye’s “light bulb” moment came in his second year in the league. That’s when he said a teammate who was a high selection in that year’s draft asked him for a loan.
“I’m looking at this guy thinking, ‘I’m undrafted.’ I only had a rookie minimum salary and you’re asking me for a loan? And I was actually in a position where I could give them a loan. And so that’s where I realized there’s a problem,” Ogunleye, who played 11 NFL seasons, told USA TODAY Sports.
Walter Stith, a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley’s Global Sports and Entertainment division, says there is a simple reason to see how wealth grows, and it’s based on the average time an athlete has to produce income in a chosen sport.
The average career length of athletes in each of the four North American major sports is less than four years.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s a temptation when it comes to wealth disappearing. I would say it’s more about obligation,” Stith, a former NFL and CFL player said. “Most of these athletes feel that they are obligated to help friends and family and it creates an issue. Financial literacy as a whole needs to be put as a priority in our educational system, especially in dealing with Black wealth and Black entrepreneurship.”
That’s one of the reasons why Ogunleye teamed with UBS and its athletes and entertainers segment, which helps their peers and underserved communities become financially literate.
Its partnerships, for instance with the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, can help educate enrolled students at the 14 league schools.
UBS and SIAC have announced a virtual series, “ELEVATE! Creating and Preserving Black Wealth,” designed to introduce Black people to job opportunities in the financial industry while providing tools to become more proficient in managing money.
In those sessions, which will be led by Ogunleye, students who are enrolled at SIAC institutions can discuss with leading experts and ex-athletes ways of building wealth and passing it on to future generations.
Former NBA player Allan Houston and SIAC Commissioner Greg Moore are part of the discussions, which have three more sessions set for the spring semester.
Among the skills that will be taught include creating a strong financial base by developing smart habits, learning to build, maintain, and protect your credit score and preparing for life after college with courses on taxes, homeownership and investing in 401(k) plans.
Managing NFL wealth to a new career
Ogunleye, the son of Nigerians, grew up in the projects on Staten Island, New York, which he said provided the fuel for his NFL career.
In 2004, after totaling a career-high 15 sacks, he was traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Chicago Bears. Ogunleye signed a six-deal deal worth $34 million, and he pocketed $15 million in signing bonuses.
Taking lessons he learned from managing his NFL millions propelled him to a second career in the financial world, and now he is the head of sports and entertainment at UBS.
One of his first orders of business was to reach out to SIAC Commissioner Moore.
The SIAC, headquartered in Atlanta, is made up primarily of historically Black colleges and universities that compete in NCAA Division II, with campuses stretching from Ohio to Georgia.
“I personally believe that income inequality is an existential threat,” Moore said. “Some of our HBCUs are located in some of the most economically underserved, disconnected communities in the country.”
Some communities where those schools are based have poverty rates well above the national average, which is 11.4{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}. Tuskegee, Alabama (Tuskegee University) has a poverty rate of 28{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}; Albany, Georgia (Albany State University) is at 31{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}, while Fort Valley, Georgia (Fort Valley State University) is among the worst, where 42{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the population lives in poverty.
‘Tomorrow’s Talent’
One way SIAC is moving forward in financial literacy is through a program called Tomorrow’s Talent, aimed at helping students eventually gain summer internship opportunities and careers with UBS.
Moore also reached out to Houston, who retired in 2005 after playing 12 seasons, to gauge his interest in “ELEVATE,” which is the virtual event series aimed at delivering financial wellness literacy.
Moore thought it would be crucial to have Houston, now in a leadership role as the special assistant to the general manager of the New York Knicks, share his story and perspective on his career. He also wanted Houston to discuss his mindset as an entrepreneur and as someone making a social impact with his organization FISLL. (Faith, Integrity, Sacrifice, Leadership, & Legacy).
Houston said the idea of preparing for the next step financially was important to him as he learned about managing money from his father, who was an assistant coach at Louisville (and later the first Black head basketball coach at Tennessee), and his mother, a financial aid director at Louisville while simultaneously running a logistics and transportation company.
“When you can share these stories and let the students know, and can give them the right information, access and opportunity, they can really create a lot more than we can imagine,” said Houston, who signed nearly $120 million in NBA contracts. “It’s just they have to have the tools and the vision and the execution strategy.”
Ogunleye, Moore and Houston agree that there is a misconception around the term “financial literacy,” as they say having a lot of money is not a prerequisite of managing money.
Changing the face of the financial services industry, not only by greater diversity of those working in the field but creating and maintaining a talent pipeline, is one of the main goals of the partnership.
“You don’t just budget your money, you budget your lifestyle,” Houston said. “Fundamental financial literacy is just understanding and watching what you have versus what you actually need, in which you can save and start building a lifestyle habit.”
Following certain thumb rules can sort out your finances broadly. Thumb rules may not always give you an accurate picture but can steer you in the right direction as they are usually time-tested processes. They are something that are easily learnt, remembered, and applied.
“Thumb rules help in streamlining our finances. Basically, when we form a rule and follow a time-tested process, our probability to reach financial freedom increases,” says Anant Ladha, founder, Invest Aaj For Kal, a financial planning firm.
Here are five popular personal finance thumb rules that you can follow to sort out your money life. However, ensure they suit your personal circumstances instead of following them blindly.
1. Maintain an emergency fund equivalent to 6 months of your salary: You know how important it is to create an emergency fund. It always comes to the rescue when you are in crisis. This should include regular expenses, EMIs, and your insurance premiums.
While six months is the general thumb rule, it differs from case to case. For instance, those with secure jobs can look at three months of emergency money, while the self-employed or those into freelance assignments, who face higher uncertainty, can keep aside expenses that can last up to a year.
2. Take a term insurance 10 times of your annual income: The purpose of a life insurance is to replace the income of the insured in case of his or her unfortunate demise. While there are ways to calculate your insurance requirements, the thumb rule is that you should buy life insurance that is equal to at least 10 times your annual income.
It is recommended that you buy a pure term plan as these plans offer a higher coverage at a lower premium.
3. The rule of 100: This thumb rule suggests that the percentage of equity in your portfolio should be 100 minus your age. So, when you are 30, the equity portion of your portfolio should be 70 per cent. When you are 40, it should be 60 per cent and when you are 50, it should be 50 per cent, and so on. This thumb rule is based on the fact that equity investments deliver good returns over a longer time period as market volatilities even out. So at the start of your career, you should have a higher proportion in equity and reduce your equity exposure as you near retirement.
4. The 35 per cent rule: Some loans like home loans and educational loans are good loans. However, other debt like credit card dues may put a strain on your finances. As a thumb rule, EMI as a percentage of your income should not exceed 35-40 per cent. Anything above that might put a strain on your finances. In case you EMI is more than that, you should avoid taking any more loans.
5. The rule of 72: This thumb rule gives you an indication of how much time it will take you to double your money when you are investing in a certain instrument. It says 72 divided by the rate of return is the time taken for your money to double. So, if your rate of return is 8 per cent, your money will double in nine years and if it is 12 per cent, it will double in six years. Remember, it is important to earn a rate of return that beats inflation. Also, where you invest would depend on your risk appetite and the time to a certain goal.
Thumb rules are meant to act as broad guidelines and are not meant to be followed to the tee. “It is important to remember that everyone is unique. At times according to your financial situation some adjustments need to be made and it’s absolutely acceptable. At times, you may also deviate from the goal, and try to get back on track,” says Ladha.
A few weeks ago, my column focused on my recommendation that as parents, we should consider sharing our financial lives with our adult children: “Discuss your finances and your estate with your kids.” A continuation of this discussion leads to the importance of organizing our personal files — paper and electronic — for the sake of our children, and ourselves as well. I can promise you, based on my years of experience assisting clients with the administration of their loved one’s estates, that by organizing your files now you will be making life much easier for whoever is tasked with figuring out your financial life following your death. Your current efforts ultimately will be viewed as an act of extreme consideration!
My guess is that personal organization (i.e., clearing out old files) isn’t one of your top priorities. It hits everyone’s “To Do” list, and is rolled forward to future To Do lists, and only rarely does it get crossed out. Since one of the priorities of the financial planning process is to create as smooth a transition as possible upon one’s passing, the present is a good time to start. Not sorting through your personal files will cause unnecessary angst and stress on whoever ultimately will be tasked with figuring out your personal filing system.
Although (hopefully) falling short of an episode of “Hoarders,” most of us have accumulated copious amounts of paper and digital documents, often physically stored in various locations, and on multiple digital sites. Some documents should be retained indefinitely and periodically updated as necessary. This category includes: wills and ancillary estate documents, trust agreements, property deeds and details of capital improvements, documents of family events such as births, deaths and marriage; the list goes on. A “final letter of instruction” containing funeral and burial arrangements and other instructions that will be of immediate importance should be created and easily accessible.
Then there are documents that should be retained for a reasonable period, such as investment and brokerage statements, mortgage and loan documents, and prior year’s tax returns and supporting documents. My experience is that most other papers, such as household bills, and bank and brokerage statements, especially when they are available online, should be tossed after a year.
As an aside, I’m frequently asked how long past tax returns should be retained. Although the IRS recommends three years, there may be tax reasons to retain them for up to seven years. Personally, and without any clear justification, I tend to retain past tax returns for at least ten years, longer than most of my fellow CPAs typically recommend.
When embarking on a paper clean-up project, here are some guidelines that you might find helpful:
Establish the project framework upfront. There are many books and online checklists that can help you create a filing structure (such as an index) and provide recommendations for how long to retain various types of documents.
When sorting through papers, ask yourself questions such as:
Are your records self-explanatory to others?
If not, how can you best provide helpful descriptions? (Post-it notes can fall off!)
Are your records in one place and in a consistent format?
Should you cancel paper statements that otherwise can be viewed online?
You will want to archive documents in a way that allows for easy access and updating. Although there are loose-leaf book formats, where possible I find that digital archiving is the best approach. A further advantage to going digital is to protect your files from fire, theft, and natural disasters such as wild fires and hurricanes. You may want to explore online “digital vaults” that are easy to navigate and update, while offering a high degree of cybersecurity. Digital vaults also allow full or limited access for professionals or family members.
Even the best filing system is of little value if those whom you want to have access them don’t know they exist, or don’t know the passwords. Make sure the appropriate people know how to access your files. Now is a good time to consider whom to bring into your confidence.
By clearing out useless paper and creating an orderly filing system now, you will reduce the strain on your family down the road.
The author does not provide tax, legal, financial or investment advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only. You should consult your own tax, legal, financial and investment advisors before engaging in any transaction.
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