7 Takeaways For Christmas Spending

Shawn: Want to avoid debt this Christmas? Make a budget, limit gifts, and remember the reason for the season – Jesus. Let’s get some Christmas perspective. Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you’ve joined us. My name is Shawn Peters and my co-host joins me, Bob Barber. Today we’re going to be talking about seven takeaways for Christmas spending. And the idea of this, of course, is well, we’re a financial podcast, so we got to find some sort of financial topic for Christmas, right, Bob? Bob: Well, and Thanksgiving is next week. That’s right. And what is it, they call it Black Friday. And if you still get the old fashioned newspaper comes where it’s about two or three inches thick full of ads. And everybody is, I mean, I know 20 years ago, I dunno if this still goes on because I don’t do it, but I know 20 years ago, 25 years ago, everybody was up on Friday morning after Thanksgiving, about 5:00 AM in the morning hitting the Walmarts and the Best Buys of the world. Shawn: And now so many of those things end up being available online Christmas day in the afternoon or Friday morning. Bob: Yeah, we all it cyber, right? Cyber Black Friday or Cyber Monday, things like that. Shawn: What we thought would be very helpful is, and some of these may seem a little redundant maybe, or you’ve heard ’em before, but repetition, repetition, repetition. Bob: Well, it’s good wisdom. And I think the scripture I picked to go with seven takeaways for Christmas spending is from Proverbs 22:7. Now you’ve heard us say this on Christian Financial Perspectives, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender,” which takes us to our first takeaway. And that is some people can pay off that credit card and are great about it. I mean, I know you and Jenna use a credit card and you’re so disciplined. Shawn: The reason for it. Bob: But you’re the half percent. Shawn: Yes, we might be the exception, but the reason why is for a lot of people, Bob, when they look at a credit card, there’s no budget in place in the first place. And so, we treat our credit card for us at least like a debit card because whatever money we’re spending, it’s already in the bank. We only do it because it racks up points for us. Bob: You’re different, Shawn. Shawn: I know it’s different. So in general, I would say the rule of thumb is do not use the credit card. Bob: Do not use a credit card. Do not go into any debt over Christmas spending. Buy it with cash and what you have in savings. Oh goodness. That’s a really big one, isn’t it? Shawn: It’s a big one. But keep this in mind. Some of these takeaways will be applicable for going into this Christmas season. Some of it might not. You might have to implement this for the next year, so don’t be discouraged. But whether it’s this year or next year, again, yes, do not go into debt just to buy gifts. Bob: It’s not worth it. So what you’ve got to do right now, right now, is figure out what’s the total that you can spend on Christmas. Not what you want to spend, but what you can spend. And that’s from what you have in cash in savings basically right now. And only use cash or a debit card. I know the majority of us now are going to buy our Christmas gifts online, so that’s going to require a debit card. Shawn: So you can use debit card for that. Bob: But use a debit card. A credit card company is not going to say when you get to a limit, they’re going to want you to keep going. They love charging that high interest. But a debit card, there’s only a certain amount that you can do. So I tell you, it’s a really great way to not overspend is coming from cash and a debit card. Shawn: Exactly. Yep. And that’s the main thing with that is so you don’t go over whatever that budget or limit is that you set. The credit card makes it so easy to go over that budget. So number two, make a list of every person and every charitable organization that you want to give a gift to this year for Christmas. Which kind of goes back into the budgeting as well. Bob: It does. It does. Shawn: Yeah. Okay, great. Well, you figured out how much you can spend now go through your list. Okay, great. Well, how much can I spend for each person or organization? And then you go from there. Bob: And number three. So number three, this is an idea that is an old idea, Shawn. It’s very, very old. Shawn: This is like white elephant or something like that. But take the pressure off. And this is going to depend on the family, obviously. Bob: It does, it does. Shawn: But for some families, especially if you have a really big family that always gets together. Bob: This is the third takeaway. Shawn: This is number three. So the third is take the pressure off of people in the family, especially again, if you’ve got a big family, what you may want to do is instead of everybody trying to buy presents for 10, 15, 20 people, well maybe you guys just do the white elephant deal where you draw a name from a hat. Bob: You draw a name, exactly. Draw from a hat. Figuratively speaking, what you try to do is you get each family member’s name, you put it in a hat. Now I know you’re not going to probably put it in a hat. Shawn: Figuratively, put it in a hat. Bob: This is the old fashioned way. You’d put it in a hat and their name is on it. And then everybody draws a name out of the hat. Alright? And that’s who you’re going to buy a gift for. And Shawn, this has meant more for the family members. There’s going to be some family members that can’t afford to buy gifts for everyone. And then there’s going to be the ones that can afford to buy a gift for everyone plus 10 more. Shawn: It’s multifaceted. Because the thing is, if you’ve got a lot of family members, even if someone is budgeting a very small amount and trying to be creative, my wife always does creative stuff. Hers is the time that she put into it. But even still, it’s hard to buy gifts if you’ve got a large family. And so this is one option. However, keep in mind if you go this route, there’s going to be that aunt or grandma or somebody that’s like, I don’t care. I’m going to buy gifts for everybody still anyway. Bob: Wait, that’s going to be my wife. Definitely Rachael does that. Shawn: Some people just love that. Some people, their love language is definitely gift giving. So do not try to tell them that for their Super Bowl for gift giving that they’re not allowed to give gifts. Bob: But the thing is, Shawn, I really believe God never intended for Christmas to end up being a financial burden. Shawn: Well, of course. Bob: But it does, especially here in America. It can end up being a financial burden for some people if you have a large family. So this is a way that instead of having to buy 10 gifts, you can buy one. You can actually be more meaningful in that gift and maybe spend a little bit more on the one gift than you would on 10 gifts, not 10 gifts combined. But you understand, right? Shawn: Sure, yeah. And if you’re in a situation where, again, refer back to number one, if your family, everyone’s buying gifts for everyone. Remember number one, do not go into debt of any kind to get gifts, get creative. Alright? There are a lot of gifts that you can give in that situation that require $0. But just time, especially for your family members that quality time is their love language. So refer to number one on all these. Don’t go into debt no matter what the situation is. Bob: Which takes us right to number four. Again, allocate a budget to each person and charitable organization on your list. Total that number, then adjust as necessary to stay within budget. Now Rachael told me about an app that we’ve been using for several years. I did not know this until just a couple of days ago that she’d been using this app. Shawn: Well, Bob, I will say you’re probably more the classic dad of, “Wait, what did we get the kids?” Rachael handles all that. No problem. What’d you get? What did I get you? Bob: But it’s called the Christmas list app. You actually just go into the app store. I went this morning, “The Christmas List”, and so you can write everybody’s name down. Then you put the amount you’re going to spend and it actually keeps a running total for each person. Shawn: So you don’t forget anybody either. Bob: So anyway, that’s out there today and most of us have a smartphone, so that’s a great way to do it. Shawn: Yeah. So number five, think long and hard about the gift you want to give. Will it be remembered one to three years from now or longer or forgotten about in the next month or two? And I think a great example of this one, I think it was last year or the year before, but my sister-in-law, your middle daughter, she got my wife, these earrings. Now when I say she got her these earrings, she made her a set of earrings. So if I had to guess less than $10, I’m assuming, in materials, she does this for a lot of people. But that is something that she, Jenna wears those earrings all the time. She loves that gift. So that’s something that didn’t cost a lot of money, but has a lot of meaning and value because it was that time and effort that she put into it. Plus it’s something that she can wear all the time. It doesn’t get used up one time. Bob: Now his wife, my daughter, she gives me coconut every year. Shawn: Well, coconut flavored everything. Bob: Coconut drinks, coconut everything. She knows, I love everything coconut with coconut in it. So she goes out. But I remember that, okay, because I’m like, okay, what’s she going to get me this year? Oh, I eat every bit of it. And I don’t know, I don’t know, it’s maybe a $15 basket of coconuts, but I’d love it. And I remember it every year. If she got me something else, I might not remember it. And you know what? I doubt most of us can remember five gifts that we got in the last three years or years. Shawn: Or it’s the ones that are actually more thoughtful. Bob: Exactly. Like you said, the sister-in-Law, our middle daughter, made that for our oldest daughter. Shawn: Yeah, it cracks me reminds of Clayton, one of our other staff members here for his dad, he pretty much always gets him some drinks, like energy drinks or something like that. And the assorted roasted nuts. So it’s not very expensive, but it’s one of those where he loves it. But he’s the kind of guy that he’ll never run over to HEB or wherever and grab those. Bob: No, I’m the same way. I don’t go get all that stuff that Jenna gets me every year. But I absolutely love it and it is ingrained in my memory now. And so this is our takeaway number six is ask yourselves about the gift. Does it have to be expensive to be appreciated? Shawn: Which we kind of highlighted, but it doesn’t really. Bob: It doesn’t. No, it doesn’t. Not at all. And of course, our last one for today, number seven definitely is the most important one, isn’t it? Shawn: Remember the real reason for Christmas this year, not the American/ westernized version based on consumerism, debt, materialism, but it’s about Jesus. Bob: That’s right. Shawn: That’s what it ultimately comes down to. Bob: Which I think would be great just to end this on a couple of scriptures today. Shawn: You want to do the first one? Bob: You read from Matthew first chapter in Matthew 1:18-22. Okay. Shawn: “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother, Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he’d considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he’ll save his people from their sins. All of this took place to fulfill what God had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.” Bob: And I took verses 1-5 from John 1, and verse 14. Okay, so verse one through five, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. That light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Verse 14, “The Word became flesh.” This is through Jesus, “And made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of His one and only son who came from the Father full of grace and truth.” Amen. We hope you have a Merry Christmas based on what God did for us in sending his son and that you also have some fun times. Giving gifts. Shawn: Yep. Well, God bless and again, thank you so much for joining us. Bye-Bye. [DISCLOSURES] * Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors®, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors® believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.