Only Six Months Until Christmas: Are You Financially Prepared?

As I sit here on my deck, having just gotten out of the pool, I hear the announcer on the radio say that it's 93 degrees at noon. This is hardly the kind of thing that conjures up visions of sugarplums! Yet, Christmas will be here soon enough! When it comes, inevitably, discussions will turn to not having enough money for Christmas, or being forced to use charge cards. Given that, the time to start thinking about Christmas is now!

If you've ever hoped to be able to pay cash, in advance, for Christmas, you can! All it takes is a little forethought and discipline.

Don't ignore or dismiss saving for Christmas just because it's not December! You know that Christmas will roll around, whether you're ready or not! So this year be financially prepared! If you're not sure how, read on, there are two easy steps!

1. Start saving! It sounds so simple. And it really is. First, a brief how-to on saving for Christmas:

Go to the bank and open an account. You can start an account with as little as $5. Or maybe you happen to have $10, $20, or $100- put it in the bank! (And not in your account that you use all the time.) Create a special account just for Christmas. When you open a checking account you'll get a debit card for "free". The debit card can be used at retail stores, on-line, and at an automatic teller machine. There's no need to pay the extra money to have actual checks.

The average shopper spends between $700- 800 on Christmas. Just think: if you put $20 a week into an account, 52 weeks a year; you'll have $1040 for Christmas! If you were to start now (mid-year), at $20 a week you'd still have $520 towards Christmas. That's a significant chunk!

Even if you save "only" $5 a week, that adds up to $260 a year! You shouldn't miss $5 a week, and come December $260 can buy some nice presents! Plus, that's $260 that you don't have to charge (and worry about paying later). If $260 sounds too low, bump it a little more!

2. Don't make excuses! I know: if saving money was easy, everyone would do it. So why don't they? Plain and simple- they have an excuse.