Latest / The Curve / RTC145: A guide to a stress-free (and debt-free) Christmas.

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RTC145: A guide to a stress-free (and debt-free) Christmas. · The Curve

0:00
Welcome to Raisin the Curve, a podcast designed to teach you everything that you need to know
0:04
to be better with your money.
0:06
Come and learn alongside me, Sophie Hallwright, a total beginner from the finance expert, Victoria Harris.
0:12
So I've asked all of the questions you wish you could so that finance, investing and growing
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your wealth actually makes sense.
0:17
Yes, it's expert education, but with promise will not be boring.
0:21
And in the wise words of sheer,
0:22
My mom said to me,
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You know sweetheart, one day you should settle down and marry a rich man.
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And I said, Mom, I am a rich man.
0:29
Come and talk and learn and laugh with us, because together we really can raise the curve.
0:34
The holidays are here.
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Woohoo!
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The silly season is upon us.
0:39
So Danny, I have a bone to pick with you.
0:41
Yes.
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We don't have a Christmas tree in the office here.
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I've let us all down to be honest with you, and only one that knows me will be shocked and appalled.
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This is a fireable offense.
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I imagine you at home every morning planning to let all I want for Christmas is you kind of situation.
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And then, you know, that the office is looking very on Christmasy.
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You're not wrong.
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I mean, this morning was actually WAM, last Christmas, but...
1:01
What's WAM?
1:02
Last Christmas.
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I gave you a map.
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Oh, sorry, we're all quite good singers.
1:07
Yeah, I'm here to do quite a lot of things.
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One day the harmony go.
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I have let the team down in my defence.
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I didn't want to do it on a day where not everyone was in the office,
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because I think the actual decoration part is the whole point.
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And I think that it would be really nice for us to all do it together.
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I agree.
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It's one of those things that it's like cool, we've done there.
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It's like, no, we sit down together, we decorate.
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It's a sense of occasion.
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It's a ritual, you know?
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If we could have it by the 25th of December, that'd be really great.
1:31
No, no.
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I think we need to enjoy it.
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We've got me some past of the restroom for Christmas.
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I don't know.
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I know.
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But for anyone that doesn't know, Danny is a mess of Christmas fan.
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More so than anyone I've ever met, and it's a really fun work that I'm in.
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Yeah.
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Someone got me an advent calendar this year, and someone.
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It's tough for him.
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I left it at their house, and then I went back to collect it,
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because I was missing days, and I was like, on the train this morning,
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eating an advent calendar and being like, this is the best breakfast in the world.
2:00
Can I not do this every month?
2:02
Oh my gosh.
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My dad gets me an advent calendar every year, even at my age.
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Yeah.
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Love that.
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Love that.
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But haven't got one this year.
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Why Christmas for me is not like a super...
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It's never really been cute.
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I don't know what it is, because my parents are separated,
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and I always sort of feel at Christmas time that it really like highlights
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that the classic, you know, stereotypical, heteronormative family arrangement
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is no longer in my life.
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Which is such a weird thing, at like 33, to still feel like there's a slight
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tinder at Christmas that isn't super happy.
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But I'm imagining Christmas in your household when you're younger,
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probably the excitement was coming from you and not from your parents.
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I've got to give them credit for this one.
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Oh.
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This is why I think Christmas is such a big deal for me,
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because it was one of the days of the year where it was flawless.
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It was like white Christmas being cross-being in my house.
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Everything looks like it was from a postcard.
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It was all done very, very well.
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But the reason we wanted to speak about Christmas,
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it's a time of year that puts a lot of pressure on families, on parents,
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on everyone, really, to spend quite a lot of money.
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And it's not just Christmas, it's a holiday season,
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we've got lots of socialising, happening, whether it's with work,
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with friends.
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There's a lot of pressure to keep up with expectations.
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I mean, I imagine it would be really particularly hard with kids,
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like, you know, Santa's bought you these gifts,
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and then also these are from, you know, it would be really hard to make everyone feel
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what is like traditionally loved by showing it through gifts,
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through lots of food.
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And so we wanted to talk about how you can approach the silly season
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with, I guess, like, a more planned and strategic mindset,
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have some, like, things in place to stop any kind of overspending
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because the last thing you want is to be going into debt at this time of year
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and then start the new year feeling behind.
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Yeah, I mean, financial stress.
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It's like a reality for 40% of households in New Zealand, Australia,
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and the UK, which I find is so low.
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I reckon December would be the most stressful time for everyone.
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People have spent the average of like 700 pounds during the holiday season.
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Well, then I would probably say it's January, it's the most stressful right?
4:16
Exactly.
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It's actually the hangover of what you've spent.
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People get quite carried away with the dopamine hit of buying gifts for people.
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It's such a slippery slope because what you think you need,
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quote unquote, need to spend, if you didn't spend it,
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would you still have a really beautiful time with that person this year
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and would you still have a great Christmas?
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Probably.
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And a lot of that is put on credit cards and you don't get the credit card bill to January.
4:38
Yeah, exactly.
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So January being the lowest point in the UK anyway,
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based on the fact that it's about four hours of daylight a day by that time
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and your credit card bill comes in and it's post-Christmas hangover
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and that Christmas limbo.
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Yeah.
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And it's not just hitting the wallets either or the financial stress.
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It's the mental health implications that come from that stress,
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which take the shine away from what Christmas should be,
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which is celebrating spending time with friends and family.
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So what we really wanted to do is just have a conversation about,
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ways that you can put in place, some, I don't know,
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hopefully helpful tips and tricks so that the next couple of months
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are less stressful than perhaps they've been in the past.
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And I thought maybe what could be a good way to start this
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is actually just to check in to honestly share how everyone is feeling.
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In the lead up to Christmas, whose planned gifts, whose set budget,
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it's like, where is everyone at?
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Oh, my gifts are purchased.
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Are they?
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Yeah.
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How many did you get?
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I don't go overboard at Christmas.
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I'm quite a considered purchaser in that sense.
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I bought four gifts in total and therefore sort of immediate sort of
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people I see every day in my life and people who I'm really,
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really close with, you know.
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I made a list throughout the year, which is what I do when I hear somebody say
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something they like.
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I'll put it down in my iPhone notes.
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You are so cute.
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Oh my god, I'm so cute.
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Are you?
6:05
Yeah.
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And it makes it so much easier when it comes to birthdays or Christmas
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because you're like, oh, that's right.
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They said they wanted those shoes or their top.
6:11
Yes.
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I made like list throughout the year and then I purchased the majority
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of them during November, not necessarily on Black Friday weekend,
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because as we all saw, the deals were quite throughout the month as well.
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But it meant that I saved about two to three hundred pounds
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on what I would have spent.
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Had I not bought them in the sales and that's just about being prepared.
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This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to a sale either.
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This was, I know I want to get this person this gift.
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I'm going to wait for this department store to go on sale and I'm going to purchase it
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at, yeah, and I saved about two hundred and sixty pounds.
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God, that's good.
6:45
Do you have all your guests on?
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Yes.
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Opsip one.
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But.
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Don't you love how she says, Opsip.
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It's so cute.
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Opsip.
6:53
Opsip.
6:54
Opsip.
6:55
Opsip.
6:56
Opsip.
6:57
Opsip.
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That's real cute.
6:59
Yeah, that's a good one.
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But.
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But I do it slightly differently and I will, I try to start really and like stagger
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the pitch so it's not, it's not...
7:08
Yeah, so then if they are on sale, that's, that's great.
7:11
But it's more $10 cost average as her kids.
7:13
Yeah.
7:14
Yeah.
7:15
It's kind of then it's not like, Oh gosh.
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I'm really going to have to cut back on stuff because I need a budget for
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presents and disembys and I'm going to take that for amaraurs.
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It's like, OK cool.
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I've got like a gifting budget for each month.
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And now a little bit of that's going to go for...
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I like that.
7:30
Yeah.
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And then also another trick that I've done,
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I have bought myself some time by giving gifts
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that I don't have to purchase for a wee while.
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So like, let's do a trip.
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Jane, you know?
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Or like, I'll give this to you when we get back to London,
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you know, which gives myself a bit of a bit of a mess.
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Otherwise, Hannah's, I have not bought you a gift.
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No, there's just a big thing.
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It's like, it's a bulky thing.
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Yeah, and I would say what you're talking about.
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And I don't want to take it all the way to New Zealand,
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just for Christmas, fitting it, just to come back over here.
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So it's okay.
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Here's a picture of what I've, what I'm going to get you
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when we get back to, yeah.
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So it's kind of, it's, again, a staggering.
8:07
It's dollar cost averaging, yeah.
8:09
But no, I do very much stick to it, though.
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When it comes to the budget aspect of it, though,
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it's interesting that you have sort of a dollar cost
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averaging approach throughout the year
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where you have maybe a hundred pounds here or fifty pounds here.
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I forecast that December will have less put into my investments
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because I will take a proportion of that
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and then put that towards holiday gifting
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in sort of from November and December instead
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of doing that dollar cost averaging throughout the month.
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Well, if anyone's wanting to know,
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I've done zero, Christmas shopping.
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You know, it's a shocking.
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I also, an engine, there's a lot of people that are not.
8:41
Yeah.
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So let's not let me feel too, mirror us.
8:44
No, also this year, I know we say this,
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is anyone else feel like, as you get older,
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the years are literally just screaming by
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and all of a sudden it's just screaming.
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It's always like, it's always like,
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it's always like, oh, not a gune, but like,
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I'm always like, oh, time's just flying.
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I feel like I'm going to wake up in the rain.
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Wake up and I'm like, it's so hot.
9:02
No, I think my strategy this year is,
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I think I'm going to message everyone in New Zealand
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and say, I'm not there for Christmas,
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don't worry about buying their gifts.
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Like, don't seem something over or like,
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make it a big deal.
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Because also for me,
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having to bring gifts back to New Zealand,
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such annoying me.
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So I'm just going to do cute little gifts,
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like quite small ones for my sister who's over here
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and my family who live over here.
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I think, I'm just going to keep it really cute and humble.
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So when you know somebody has put thought
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and time into doing something for you,
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I think that's such a cool gift.
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Because we really live in this space now
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where it's instant gratification.
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It's like, now, now, now, so easy to purchase something.
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That's why I loved creating it less like throughout the year.
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Even if it's a small gift, if I give the gift,
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they know that I listened.
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Yes.
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Like, six months ago, and remembered,
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I had a great, thoughtful gift.
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Like, I remember I dated this guy,
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and literally it would be Christmas Eve,
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and he would go into one store, and he'd be like,
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right, but I didn't know exactly what he was doing.
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I needed to get my mum, my dad, my girl, from my brother,
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and the sales assistant would just go,
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what's your budget, and just go and get it?
10:06
Oh, I hate that.
10:06
And it was like, I knew it every year.
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I mean, it was a great store, so it wasn't complaining.
10:09
What's the point, though?
10:10
I know, but it was so thoughtless.
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And I was just like, you know, like a card.
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Just even a card would have added a little bit, yeah.
10:17
Yeah.
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Last year, though, I got, oh my gosh, he's going to kill me.
10:21
Last year, I got gifted our planners.
10:24
He gave you what?
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Our own finance and investing.
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Oh, that's right, that was.
10:29
What was the story behind that?
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It was so fun.
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Please tell me there was a gift to give you.
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Oh, four.
10:33
But he was trying to hide the gifts,
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so that I wouldn't see it through the wrapping paper.
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His sandwiched it between two of our planners.
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Okay.
10:41
You've really, like, you've already been there.
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He did actually get you something else.
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Yes.
10:47
Like, come on.
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The poor guy.
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But I was, I opened it.
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I opened it and I was like, oh, is this a joke?
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Like, why have you wrapped up two of my own products
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to give back to me?
10:57
Anyway, now he's bought the course.
10:58
I'm like, oh, is that my Christmas present?
11:00
Maybe that's nothing.
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And I got an IOU on it, post it, no one's.
11:03
Yeah, sure.
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I owe you a present.
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Uh-huh.
11:06
No.
11:07
Okay.
11:08
That you wrote an article for breakfast TV.
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Yep.
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And it went up online and it was, it was at eight tips
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on what we can do to reduce the financial stress
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at this time of the year.
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Yeah.
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Can we go through some of those top tips?
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Sure.
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Well, the first one, the apologies
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this podcast hasn't come out earlier, is start early.
11:29
Oh, great.
11:30
So I feel you're all right.
11:31
How early?
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I start in, like, October.
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Yeah, that's about the same time as me.
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So much for achievers.
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It's just because it gives you more mental space
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to really think about it and not make impulse decisions.
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Yeah.
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And then you can also take advantage of sales
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and all of that.
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So, yeah, you can fall for me.
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I can space out this spending.
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So, yeah, start as early as possible.
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So maybe start for next year.
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Yeah, no, honestly, I think that is a good tip.
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And I will.
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I will think about it now next year.
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I think you just don't know what you don't know.
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It's the same with budgeting.
12:00
It's the same with investing.
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As soon as I know it and I've done it
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and it's part of my routine and it's just normal.
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I do it.
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But no one's ever told me start thinking in October
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about your presence.
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And it gives you time to be thoughtful, you know?
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I think a cool thing for anyone at home listening right now
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would be to pick up your phone and set an alarm
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or a reminder for October 1st, 2025.
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Plan Christmas gifting.
12:25
The year moves to what did I say earlier on?
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Screams past us.
12:28
It's true.
12:29
And sometimes you just need to be interrupted
12:31
and go, yeah, Christmas spelling.
12:33
Yeah, and you don't just mute it.
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No, no, she knows me well.
12:39
Also, like, you can start thinking about my gif now,
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if you want to.
12:43
What I find annoying about gif to giving.
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I don't know if this is just because if someone tells me to do it,
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I'm like, I don't want to.
12:51
Yeah.
12:52
Is that like, I like being generous in giving people things
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because I want to?
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Not because that time of year is coming up.
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It's become more and more and more consumer focus
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as we've gotten older.
13:03
But I would say if COVID taught us anything,
13:05
it's the only thing that really we wanted.
13:08
When everything got stripped away,
13:09
the only thing we wanted was to be with each other.
13:12
Yeah, and it's something to remember to go,
13:14
okay, am I buying this because I feel the pressure?
13:17
Or would it be just really nice to organize a day
13:19
like you said, Vic, with that person,
13:21
spend some quality time with them
13:23
because you just never know.
13:24
It's so funny I was locking through old footage for this course.
13:28
And I was going through my birthday
13:30
that I had straight out of lockdown.
13:32
Oh, we were the wise.
13:33
Yeah, and you can only have 25 people.
13:35
And I was looking at that.
13:36
And I was like, everyone was in such good spirits.
13:39
You run was so happy to be together.
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That was such a fun day.
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And it was such a fun day.
13:44
And I was like, it's because we were all locked up.
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And it was like, it was just like really,
13:48
probably one of my best birthdays, such a happy time.
13:50
I don't know, and it's like so true.
13:52
It's like, it's not about the gift giving
13:54
or what you're wearing or her like the food
13:57
or the table decorations.
13:58
It's just like being together.
14:00
And honestly, if you're worried about the type of gift
14:04
you get someone and you're worried that, oh, no,
14:06
they're going to think I'm cheap or they're not going
14:08
to like it enough.
14:09
And it's going to impact our friendship or relationship.
14:11
I would seriously suggest that you consider that friendship.
14:14
You know, if giving a gift to someone
14:16
is the only way to maintain a relationship
14:18
to a certain level or a certain standard,
14:20
something's gone wrong here anyway
14:21
because spending time with each other
14:23
really should just be the priority.
14:24
A beautiful, thoughtful card goes along.
14:26
Yes.
14:27
OK, what's next?
14:28
I mean, it kind of ties into this as like, don't be influenced.
14:32
I think I am the first one for my hand up and say,
14:34
I am guilty of being influenced by people on social media
14:37
and falling into the trap of realizing it's not reality.
14:40
For a lot of people, that's like a snippet of their life.
14:42
And so it's just remembering when you see the snippet
14:45
of these beautiful table decorations
14:46
or these extravagant gifts, it's like, just remember,
14:51
that's a tiny part of their life.
14:52
And we all know what's important and it's not that.
14:55
I'm really sick of sharing highlights on social media.
14:58
Like, I definitely noticed myself falling into it
15:01
and the only time I fall into it is when I'm not feeling good.
15:04
Yeah.
15:04
When I'm feeling insecure, when I'm feeling like lonely
15:08
or unworthy or anything, that is when I want to put more
15:12
on social media.
15:12
It's so weird.
15:13
Also, with that stuff, like, OK, great.
15:16
Somebody got, I don't know, a really expensive bag
15:18
for Christmas, but what you're not seeing
15:19
is the debt behind the scenes of that, you know?
15:22
The person driving the really fancy card,
15:24
you know, it's really cool, not being in debt.
15:26
Yeah.
15:27
Celebrating at home, Christmas can be
15:29
really expensive time travel wise for a lot of people
15:32
if you're traveling across country or like across the world.
15:35
Try and celebrate at home or celebrate a different time of year.
15:38
Be like, look, I'm not going to come back for Christmas
15:40
because it is so expensive.
15:42
Can we do a really great family celebration
15:44
January when flights and, you know, travel is a lot cheaper?
15:47
I think everything that I'm learning from both of you
15:50
and from the curve in general is just like how important planning is.
15:55
And I think actually even just putting aside, you know,
15:57
a small amount of your pay every month
16:00
to be able to afford your flight home.
16:01
I think the same can be said for things like travel.
16:04
If you know you want to be in Christmas with your family,
16:07
and I don't think you should beat yourself up this Christmas
16:09
if you haven't done it because, of course,
16:11
a lot of us won't have.
16:13
But if you can start thinking, OK, I would really like to fly
16:17
home to be with my family wherever you are in the world.
16:20
Or even if it's just like getting a train, you know,
16:22
like Danny's getting a train to see her family.
16:24
And it's like over a hundred pounds to get there.
16:26
If you think in advance, you can put money aside.
16:29
You can plan it.
16:30
It's when you don't, yeah, like make those steps.
16:35
That's where it makes it so much more stressful.
16:38
Planning and boundaries.
16:39
Setting boundaries of how much you're going to spend
16:41
and the expectation that's required
16:43
if you're financially from family members and friends,
16:45
like having those kind of sticky conversations with people early
16:49
so that there isn't this strange looming anxiety over you
16:52
with everything when it comes to money.
16:54
The more you can plan, the better.
16:56
If it's retirement, between your holiday.
16:59
If it's the holiday, if it's a gift, if it's a dinner,
17:03
if it's anything like the more planned, you can be the better.
17:06
What I would like to talk about which is not now
17:08
is the cost of having ADHD
17:10
because the idea of booking things and planning things
17:14
everything gets left to the last minute.
17:16
And it's not from lack of trying.
17:18
I think that there is a ginormous ADHD text
17:21
because this has happened to me with this weekend,
17:23
with the trains, I'm absolutely bleeding money
17:26
and it's because that is something I really struggle with.
17:29
So I think the more that we can do
17:31
in terms of coming up with tips or actually saying,
17:35
go and do this, it's so helpful.
17:37
Even just setting that alarm for October,
17:40
genuinely in that moment will save me hundreds of pounds next year.
17:44
Well then for anyone else, if you were travelling this year
17:47
and you recognise that actually things went up
17:49
in the last three months of the year,
17:50
set yourself an alarm right now
17:52
for the second or third of January
17:54
to start looking at flights or travel plans
17:57
for the following year
17:58
and also then going onto the places like Skyscanner
18:00
and setting up alerts for when prices go up and down.
18:03
Alerts are great, love alerts.
18:05
I've just done that, thank you very much.
18:07
And lastly, one more sneaky tip is that we do get
18:12
a lot of unwanted gifts at Christmas time.
18:14
So if you are feeling a bit stretched
18:16
on the old credit card in January,
18:18
there are secondhand marketplaces
18:20
where you can sell those gifts.
18:21
Are you seriously telling people
18:23
to regift their Christmas gifts?
18:24
It's better than throwing it out or having it sit there
18:27
just not saying regift, she's saying make profit.
18:30
Yeah, I'm saying sell and make money.
18:32
Imagine.
18:34
What, I mean, there's only so many times
18:36
you can be like, oh, thank you so much.
18:37
It's better to do that than have it not used
18:41
that someone else could really enjoy.
18:42
Exactly.
18:43
Or it go into landfill because you throw it away.
18:45
It's so weird, I would just give it to someone.
18:47
I don't have, I can't regift.
18:49
Yeah, but I would say it makes money of it.
18:51
Like, I just can't be bothered.
18:53
Like, what am I going to list it on like?
18:55
Becks like, don't understand.
18:56
Absolutely not.
18:57
Vinted, Facebook Marketplace,
18:59
Trade Minister, New Zealand.
19:00
Just the admin, I'm like, so not worth it for me,
19:03
but there might be some people that would.
19:05
Boxing day is the biggest day for regifting listings
19:08
on Trade Me.
19:09
Really?
19:10
One man's trash is someone's treasure.
19:12
Yeah.
19:13
I think it's a good, yeah.
19:14
My niece sent me her wish list.
19:15
What was that?
19:16
There was a dog on it and I zoomed in.
19:18
On the photo and I was like, to my sister,
19:20
I was like, well, I know what I'll be getting her for Christmas.
19:22
She's like, don't you dare.
19:23
Ha ha ha ha.
19:25
Can't she probably just put some me inside her?
19:26
Oh, yeah.
19:28
Oh, that's so cute.
19:29
She calls me to her cousin.
19:30
We need everyone asks if she got a dog.
19:31
She's like, yes, me so.
19:33
She's my cousin.
19:34
Oh, that's so cute.
19:35
I love that.
19:36
Sorry, side checked.
19:37
So I think one thing we've talked about, you know,
19:40
like practical, helpful things to try and stay on track,
19:44
financially.
19:46
One thing I think we need to talk about
19:48
is the idea of overspending because the reality is these,
19:52
those things are all good.
19:54
We're in December.
19:55
A lot of people don't have the time to plan.
19:57
A lot of people will already be stressed out
20:00
and be thinking, well, cool.
20:02
Those are all really helpful for next year.
20:04
But this year I have already blown my budget or whatever.
20:08
So I wanted to talk about debt and credit cards
20:12
and how we can.
20:14
I don't know, I guess, just be like somewhat more clever
20:19
to reduce the stress going into next year
20:21
because it sucks sailing the year.
20:23
And like, cool, I'm already behind.
20:25
But before we get into it,
20:26
let's just do a quick definition.
20:28
What we're talking about here, like debt is such.
20:31
It's, I really annoys me because it's so new once.
20:33
Like debt actually can be really good,
20:35
but as soon as you hear the word, it sounds terrifying.
20:37
There's obviously good and bad debt.
20:38
The debt that we're talking about in this episode
20:40
is like bad debt.
20:41
It's not adding to your financial situation at all.
20:44
Do you want to maybe just speak to that?
20:46
It's a bit complex when it comes to Christmas
20:48
because in my opinion, I don't think
20:49
there's any form of good debt for Christmas gifting.
20:52
These are not essentials.
20:53
So therefore, if you are using money that you do not have
20:57
to buy something that somebody does not need,
20:59
it is a non-essential and a nice to have.
21:02
The only way that I think that debt can be used
21:05
in a quote unquote positive way for Christmas
21:08
would be if you were able to put the gifts on a credit card
21:12
that gained points that would give you either cashback
21:15
or flights, that would only work if you know,
21:18
wholeheartedly, you're going to pay that off that month.
21:20
If you are a person that will put something
21:21
on a credit card and you know you won't pay it off immediately,
21:24
do not do it.
21:25
It is not worth it.
21:26
It does not come out in the wash
21:28
and you will spend more money than you ever saved on points
21:30
because of the interest that it generates.
21:32
Secondly, let's talk about buying our pay later.
21:36
Because for clarity, I do not use buying our pay later.
21:38
I don't like it.
21:39
I don't agree with it.
21:40
I think it promotes really bad money habits
21:43
and lack of control, lack of boundaries
21:47
and lack of planning in people.
21:48
I understand that there are needs sometimes
21:51
that if you're washing machine breaks down
21:53
and you can buy one on buying our pay later,
21:54
okay, well that's a conversation,
21:55
but we're not talking about that.
21:56
We're talking about Christmas gifting.
21:57
If you weren't able to use buying our pay later,
22:00
would you still buy that gift?
22:02
And if the answer is no,
22:04
I don't think that that gift should be
22:06
in the realm of your budget
22:08
because even though it's 0% interest,
22:11
late payments really creep up.
22:13
And so for example, in the UK,
22:15
Klaner, if you miss a payment
22:17
on your 0% interest purchase,
22:19
it's 25% of the purchase price
22:22
or five pounds late fee, whatever is lesser.
22:25
So if you spent 20 pounds buying someone a gift for Christmas
22:29
and you missed the payment two weeks later,
22:31
that gift has now cost you 25 pounds.
22:33
Oh God.
22:35
So my remedies for that to avoid debt
22:39
and to avoid needing to use those would be
22:41
to look at your income and try and take a portion of that
22:45
and put it aside for gifting
22:46
and figure out what's reasonable for you.
22:48
So a good rule of thumb is 1% of your annual income.
22:53
Absolutely no more of that should be spent on gifting.
22:55
There's sounds like, I mean,
22:56
I've, there's quite a lot, isn't it?
22:58
1% in your gifting though,
22:59
you've got birthdays, you've got Christmas,
23:01
you've got annual gifting.
23:02
Sorry, okay, shit.
23:03
So that means that that has to cover everything.
23:05
Yeah.
23:06
I also feel like there might be people listening though
23:08
but that are like, well, I have left it to the last minute
23:11
and I can't afford to buy gifts.
23:13
So I need to use my now pay later.
23:16
I think that this is a really great time
23:18
to have a conversation with the people
23:20
that you are wanting to buy gifts for
23:22
and saying, look, right now,
23:25
I've had to prioritize spending money on other things
23:28
and I don't have money to spend on a lavish gift for you
23:32
right now.
23:32
Here's a beautifully written card of,
23:35
you know, how you make me feel and all of that
23:37
but, or can I give it to you later in January or February?
23:41
I think a really good point that you make
23:43
is like, pretend by now later's not there.
23:45
Pretend the option isn't available.
23:47
What else would you do?
23:48
What I do with my friends in Australia
23:50
is that we have Christmas about two weeks after
23:53
and that's because we can all benefit from the sales
23:55
after Christmas day.
23:56
If I want to get them a candle, for example,
23:58
and that candle then goes on sale
24:00
and I can save $20, $30 because candles
24:02
are outrageously expensive these days.
24:04
We have our friends Christmas two weeks after that
24:06
so that we can all sort of benefit from that
24:08
and save money.
24:09
When we're talking about spending a certain amount
24:12
on people though, zoom out from, and five years ago,
24:15
we were also able to buy our friends gifts
24:17
but perhaps they were less expensive
24:19
because our salaries were lower
24:21
and this is where I think lifestyle creep comes in.
24:23
So it's not necessary to buy somebody a hundred dollar gift.
24:26
It's, that's completely unnecessary.
24:28
It's so interesting because I just did the whole 1%
24:31
and looked at what it is.
24:32
And at first I thought that's a lot and then I saw it
24:35
and I thought I definitely spend more than that on gifts.
24:39
A hundred percent and it's because I don't plan it.
24:42
It comes back to planning.
24:43
I don't think of my total gifting budget for the year
24:47
and I really like the idea of that.
24:48
I like the idea of almost taking 1% of what I earn every month
24:53
and having that automatically going
24:54
into a separate like little potter account
24:56
that's my gift account.
24:57
So that would be in your non-essentials
24:59
that would be your nice to have
25:00
from your monthly budgeting.
25:02
And that's a great way of doing it
25:03
because then when October hits,
25:05
you already got my allocated.
25:07
Yeah, because I think I like doing it more
25:09
than just having it as a pile of my spending.
25:11
Just moving into more actionable for people.
25:13
Things like cost comparison websites,
25:16
massive help this time of year.
25:17
So price spy and New Zealand and the UK,
25:20
really good to let you know all of the retailers
25:22
throughout the country that have got things
25:24
at a certain price at any given time.
25:25
It also tracks the last sort of 90 days
25:28
of the cost of that item.
25:29
How have I never heard of that?
25:30
So you can see the time it was the cheapest
25:33
and two things you can do here.
25:34
You can then go, great, actually,
25:35
it's probably going to go down again.
25:37
Maybe I'm going to buy that the day after Christmas
25:39
so that I can save on that and gift that a week later
25:42
than planned and save probably hundreds.
25:44
Or you can bear in mind what date it was
25:47
that it got the lowest.
25:48
And then next year.
25:49
And put a little reminder in.
25:50
Lots of reminders happening in this episode.
25:52
But to check that this time next year
25:54
and go all that time next year and say,
25:57
okay, well, it was the lowest on October 20th.
25:59
I'm going to try and look at that area next year.
26:01
It's so genius.
26:02
I did that for my house renovation
26:03
with fridges and ovens and I did the price comparison.
26:06
Yeah.
26:07
And then you're like,
26:08
well, maybe I don't need as one that's that powerful
26:10
or that good.
26:12
And I can reduce the price
26:13
and you can also your search is actually very, very handy.
26:16
Yeah.
26:17
So there will be people who are either already in
26:21
by now pay later debt
26:23
or have already used the credit card
26:25
to pay for things that he'd have Christmas
26:26
or may have to and feel like they don't have a choice.
26:30
Are there any tips that you could share?
26:33
I would say planning January.
26:35
So when figure out when you're going to get paid in January
26:38
and make a budget for January
26:40
and that budget needs to include repayments
26:42
because ideally we're paying off the majority
26:45
of what Christmas gifting has cost us
26:47
by the time January 31st hits.
26:49
And if you've got an idea of how much January is going to cost you,
26:52
the events you've got planned,
26:53
particularly in New Zealand summer,
26:54
if you've got barbecues that you know you want to buy it
26:57
like a nice bottle of wine for or something like that.
26:59
Put all of that in.
27:00
It might feel quite granular
27:01
but it will feel really good to have a plan to be prepared
27:05
and understand how much of your income in January
27:08
needs to go back to paying off debts.
27:10
It's quite interesting.
27:11
I think I've been feeling very empowered
27:15
by being quite granular with my money
27:17
and where it's going.
27:18
And it's something about feeling like
27:21
you're taking the control back
27:23
because you've got a plan
27:24
and because you are aware of where your dollars or pounds are going.
27:28
I think debt makes people feel really out of control
27:31
and really scared and really just almost as though their money
27:34
is not something that they get to have a say on anymore
27:38
because now it's sort of the sort of snowball effect
27:41
that it's just getting worse and it's scary.
27:43
Even sitting down and putting a budget together
27:46
feels so empowering
27:48
and even if you're like,
27:49
I can't be bothered doing this.
27:50
We actually, our course would be a really good thing
27:52
like and it's so affordable
27:54
and if you're sitting there thinking,
27:56
oh, I am going to be in debt
27:58
and I don't know how to put a budget together
28:01
or manage my money
28:03
and I'd love to be able to do that in January.
28:06
Ah, someone to get the course for you, for Christmas.
28:09
Like for me, it's been so game-changing going through
28:11
like what is essential?
28:12
What's non-essential?
28:13
How can you plan better?
28:14
And I think if you have used a credit card,
28:16
I think the key thing is to,
28:18
if there's a minimum amount that you can pay,
28:19
it's the monthly repayments
28:21
because that will stop you getting into further debt.
28:24
If you skip those, then it just adds on
28:25
and you get a more debt and more debt.
28:27
So it's like, if that's all you can pay
28:29
and you can't pay off any of the actual,
28:32
the actual debt itself,
28:33
just pay those minimum monthly payments.
28:35
And I think depending on the situation,
28:37
it's not something that I think you should use
28:38
as a planned ahead tool,
28:41
but if you've gotten yourself into a scenario
28:42
where you find yourself in credit card debt,
28:44
you've already purchased these gifts
28:46
and you need a plan for January,
28:48
credit card companies will take on previous credit card debt.
28:52
So say I'm with NatWest credit card
28:54
and I want to transfer to an American Express credit card.
28:56
There will be a balanced transfer,
28:58
which means that the new credit card company
29:00
will take on the old debt
29:02
from the old credit card company
29:03
in order to gain you as a new customer.
29:05
They'll let you bring all of that money over
29:06
to the new credit card
29:08
with 0% interest for six, maybe nine, 12 months,
29:11
depending on where you go.
29:12
That gives you a lot of time to actually break down
29:17
the money you owe and start to make serious debts
29:19
in the repayments without having to consider interest,
29:21
which obviously just keeps you
29:23
kind of on the hamster wheel of debt.
29:25
I think it's a tool that you should use only
29:27
when you find yourself in that position.
29:28
And as I said, don't go into getting a credit card
29:31
with the idea of continually balanced transferring your debt
29:34
because that's not responsible
29:36
and it's not planning ahead.
29:36
It's sustainable.
29:37
But it's such a good tool for people
29:38
who find themselves in that moment.
29:40
Is it essentially like shopping around
29:42
and being like all move to voter phone
29:45
from two degrees if you can give me a dollar off my bills?
29:49
Yes, that kind of thing.
29:51
It means that if I had $5,000 in credit card debt
29:54
and I had an interest rate of 29% APR,
29:57
which is annual percentage rate,
30:00
I would need to pay off 29% of 5,000 pounds annually
30:07
in order, which is $1,450.
30:09
So roughly 120, which won't be accurate
30:12
because there'll be ebbs and flows
30:13
of what you're putting on that card.
30:14
But $120 a month would be the minimum
30:17
for me to even just keep sitting at $5,000.
30:19
I'm not even getting anywhere.
30:20
It's just gonna stay there.
30:21
So if you balance transfer at 0%,
30:23
it's your credit card company saying,
30:24
I'm gonna give you some breathing room.
30:26
We're not gonna charge you interest for six months.
30:28
Then if you were paying off 200 each month, for example,
30:32
you'd actually get to the point
30:33
where you may have paid off 1,000 or 1,200
30:36
and then you've only got 3,800 left on your credit card.
30:39
You can just go on credit card websites
30:40
and they will show whether they've got
30:42
balanced transfer options for 0%.
30:44
Some of them have balanced transfer at 0% for 24 months.
30:47
That's two years of not having to pay interest.
30:49
Why would they get out of that as a customer?
30:52
Interested.
30:53
But yeah, I think that's a good point.
30:54
It's like, if you are struggling, call your bank
30:56
and be like, what options do you have for me?
30:58
If they can't help you, go to another bank
31:00
and be like, hey, this is my situation.
31:02
I want to become a customer of yours.
31:04
What can you, what's the best deal you can do?
31:06
But what are the best you can do for what part
31:08
of your money situation for your credit card did?
31:11
So they might be like, oh, actually,
31:12
we've got this other credit card
31:13
and you can transfer balance, which is a lower rate.
31:15
Although, or a new bank might be like,
31:17
yeah, balance transfer your existing debt
31:19
and you'll be 0% like there's so many different ways
31:22
they can cut the mustard in terms of helping you out.
31:24
Or they might be like, well, we'll pause your repayments
31:27
for six months for, you know, you'd be surprised.
31:31
Banks want to keep you as a customer.
31:32
Yeah, and they're hard to get a new customer.
31:34
So yeah, with mortgages, with credit cards,
31:37
with any kind of debt.
31:38
Yeah, everything.
31:39
Yeah, just.
31:40
What about if it was like, by now I pay late,
31:42
can you go to a new one?
31:44
They like, see, I'm going to go to Clana or something.
31:46
No, no, no.
31:48
I feel like they're the devil.
31:50
The reason you can't do that is because they've paid the merchant.
31:53
So say you buy something from Nessa Porte
31:56
and you did it via Clana or by now I pay later.
31:59
They've paid the place you actually bought it from.
32:02
Yeah, so you have to pay them back the money.
32:04
They're literally carrying that debt for you.
32:06
Yeah, so they're literally like a kind of a holding pin
32:09
for like between the merchant and you.
32:10
Yeah, so they're taking on the risk of like,
32:13
you will pay them and that's why if you don't pay them,
32:15
they're like, we're going to penalise you
32:17
because we've already paid out the merchant.
32:19
Oh goodness, goodness.
32:20
I feel quite like shit.
32:24
Okay, well, I just think if I'm feeling like this,
32:27
there'll be so many people that are just,
32:29
it is just, it is a stressful time of the year.
32:32
I think in summary, if you haven't planned and set a budget
32:36
or set a certain amount of your salary aside
32:38
and you've got to this point
32:40
and you've had to use debt and put gifts
32:43
on your credit cards, then there are options
32:46
that can help you alleviate their burden
32:48
of heating into January going, oh shit.
32:51
And if you aren't quite there yet
32:53
and you have still got gifts to buy
32:54
and you're looking at your bank balance
32:55
and you're thinking, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this.
32:57
Make a plan for the people you really, really need
33:00
to buy a gift for when you say need, you're like,
33:02
I really want to show love to this person in that way
33:04
and giftings my love language
33:05
and I really want to be part of that moment with them.
33:07
Write down the list of people
33:09
and then create a budget per person.
33:11
Then you have a total amount at the end.
33:13
So you've got four people and you want to spend 25 on each.
33:17
You've got a hundred that you've set aside for gifting.
33:20
Keep yourself accountable to that.
33:21
And if you get, you know, excited
33:23
and you spend 30 pounds on one of them
33:25
or 30 dollars on one of them to adjust the amount.
33:27
You have to adjust so that the bottom line
33:29
of your gifting stays the same.
33:30
Like the creep with 5, 10 here and there really does add up
33:33
and I think that's where people start to see
33:36
that leaky budget happen.
33:38
They say, I don't know how I had a budget.
33:40
I don't know how I overspend 5, 10, 15 all really adds up.
33:43
So keep yourself accountable and then think about
33:46
the people that you would like to gift to.
33:47
They may be on your nice to have gifting list
33:49
but maybe they're not immediate family
33:51
and you're not going to see them on Christmas day.
33:53
They get a card.
33:54
Oh my goodness, bake them something amazing.
33:56
I don't make them kimchi.
33:57
I tried that.
33:58
I was really bad at it.
33:59
There's some pecoranians.
34:00
But just be safe.
34:01
I like cupcakes.
34:02
Nothing, I really cute.
34:04
Somebody making me a tin of Christmas biscuits
34:06
and a little note, that will mean so much more to me
34:10
than somebody buying me a pair of socks
34:12
that don't fit that I'm never going to wear.
34:14
Yeah.
34:14
Maybe I'll do a bit of Christmas bacon.
34:16
Yeah, we'll be baking for Christmas.
34:19
It's just like kimchi flavoured cookies.
34:21
It's like really like uncooked dough.
34:24
I mean, I don't bake things near the following instructions
34:26
in general has never really been a thing that's made.
34:28
Those baking kits where all you add is eggs and water.
34:31
They're the best.
34:32
Oh, I don't think they're the best.
34:34
No, they're not.
34:34
They're supposed to be on a high bake.
34:36
I tried the kimchi, things that I tried to make.
34:39
I got these giant jars.
34:40
Like I really had the best of intelligence,
34:42
like really big, beautiful jars.
34:45
And I got like 15 cabbages and like all these dijon radishes
34:52
and like I'm pretty sure I put prawns in them.
34:55
Like there was this so random and they were coated.
34:58
Anyway, it took me days.
35:00
That's been probably three days, like hands and buckets,
35:03
like doing all this like kimchi stuff and then he's in bucket.
35:06
Yeah, I literally, because I was doing it on mass,
35:09
but I never got any positive compliments from them
35:12
and I think maybe most people didn't need it.
35:14
I love you, but if I get you for Secret Santa,
35:16
can I please swap with you?
35:18
Because I do know you'll be giving kimchi.
35:20
You've fermented cabbage for Christmas.
35:22
I've learnt my lesson.
35:23
I won't be doing that again.
35:25
Well, you'd know who your Secret Santa was
35:26
straight away, wouldn't you?
35:27
Yeah, I think so.
35:29
Overall, I think giving each other a bit of compassion
35:32
is the first step because if we're having this conversation,
35:35
it basically means that everyone in our social network
35:38
or friendship circles is also looking at their bank balance
35:40
and going, holy cow, this is an expensive time of year.
35:43
Have the chat with your friends and say things
35:45
are a little bit tight right now.
35:47
Would you mind if we did a potluck Christmas dinner instead?
35:50
Everyone brings something baked or something delicious,
35:52
spent some time with people you love
35:53
instead of automatically defaulting to gifting?
35:56
And I think we'd be surprised by how much more positive
35:59
we feel having been in the company people we love.
36:01
They might be being like, oh my gosh.
36:03
Thank you so much for saying this.
36:04
You know, I think just if a friend came for me and said that,
36:08
I'd be like, oh, yes.
36:09
Me too.
36:10
Thank you so much for suggesting it.
36:11
Just speaking of, can you pull up?
36:13
No gifts from everyone.
36:14
Or we're doing a Secret Santa in the office.
36:16
Yes.
36:17
I'll know if you're already bought a present.
36:19
Yes.
36:20
Have you really?
36:22
No.
36:23
Oh, damn.
36:24
You'll have it.
36:25
Could you give me a buzz, Jenny?
36:26
It's store bought kimchi, so it says you got some.
36:29
Hey, that's another one.
36:30
That's another one.
36:31
Hey, I got more tips.
36:32
If you're doing Secret Santa with your friends,
36:34
which I think is a really cool friendship circle thing
36:37
to do as well, to stop unnecessary gifting, set yourselves
36:39
a budget, and everyone's stick to it.
36:41
Don't be the person that spends 100 when the budget was 30.
36:43
No one's impressed.
36:44
So annoying.
36:45
Just spend 30.
36:46
And then try and get something I think
36:48
that is not boring practical, but something like if I'm dating
36:53
someone, or I've got a friend who really, really loves
36:56
this fancy pair of socks, it's a bit of a splash thing,
36:58
and they're not going to spend it on themselves.
37:00
That's a cool gift to get them for Christmas,
37:02
because it's practical.
37:03
They're going to wear it, but it's also quite flashy,
37:06
and it's something that they probably
37:07
won't spend on themselves.
37:08
So I always try and give things that are not novelty,
37:11
and that are going to be really appreciated
37:13
and used by people, because we don't want things to end up
37:16
in landfill just because we're getting them something that's
37:18
funny that we saw in a joke store.
37:20
But we also want to do something and give them something
37:23
that they're really going to treasure,
37:23
and that's usually something they can use.
37:25
OK, well, if we could maybe have some like budgets?
37:28
20 pounds.
37:29
20 pounds?
37:31
Is that real estate?
37:32
For our gifting between the three of us.
37:34
Yeah.
37:34
What budget have you both been working with?
37:37
Because it looks like she's already booked gifs
37:39
by the look on her face.
37:40
20 pounds is a reasonable amount.
37:43
You know, but I don't want ficta gone and spent 60,
37:45
and then I get as long as 20.
37:46
No, but this is the whole conversation we're having.
37:48
I think it's fine, 20.
37:50
20 pounds is great.
37:52
OK.
37:53
Curve Christmas gifting cannot go past 20 pounds.
37:56
Cannot contain kimchi and first have gift receipts.
38:02
OK.
38:03
Great.
38:03
Love it.
38:04
And cannot be bought on a credit card.
38:05
Yeah, no, I know how to pay later.
38:07
No, I know how to pay later.
38:09
Yeah.
38:09
Thank you so much for listening to Raising the Curve.
38:11
These conversations are designed to teach you everything
38:13
you need to know to be better with your money,
38:15
saving, to investing, to talking with your friends
38:17
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38:19
And if you like what you heard, we would love if you could
38:21
please hit subscribe wherever you're listening,
38:23
and leave a comment.
38:24
Let us know what you thought about the episode.
38:26
And it only takes one second.
38:28
And it would really make our week a month, our year.
38:30
Yeah, yeah.
38:31
So please do it.
38:32
OK, love you.
38:33
Bye.
38:34
OK, quickly, the curve was created
38:36
to empower and educate you about investing,
38:38
but we are not financial advisors.
38:40
Our platform exists for educational purposes only,
38:43
and it doesn't provide personalized investing advice
38:45
for your individual needs and should not
38:47
be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
38:50
And always remember to do your own research
38:52
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38:54
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38:56
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38:58
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39:00
You got this.
39:00
Yeah, we know you got this.