On the Twelfth Day of Christmas My Money Gave to Me
As the cliche saying goes, Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas shoppers have started flocking bargain havens such as Divisoria and the Greenhills Shopping Center. For Filipinos, its time to splurge and spend their hard earned money to make their loved ones happy, if only for this once in a year event. But wait, before you start splurging, you might want to consider a finance guru, Efren Ll Cruz’s 12 tips for Christmas published in Inq7.net.
- Bring out your sinking fund money,
- Be a smart shopper;
- Avoid temptation,
- If you have to, spend using only two credit cards;
- Forget about installments,
- Reward yourself for a good year with investments,
- Make a firm resolution to monitor your personal finances more closely in 2006
- Manage your debts and expenses,
- Resolve to learn something new to improve your skills,
- If you haven’t yet, get a life insurance policy,
- Pay your taxes,
- Finally, give the best gift of all this Christmas, that of yourself
Of those twelve days, let me comment on the first five as these remind me of the usual ways exhibited by Filipinos this time of the year.
Yes, Filipinos have this peculiar way of shelling out a portion of their monthly salary to “pay” their paluwagan dues all year round. And the payoff? A hefty some of savings to spend for their Christmas shopping. For whatever its worth, this seem to work for everyone else. But it would be wise to save a portion of it to raise funds for the rainy days and not to spend it all to buy gifts and what-have-yous for friends, relatives and loved ones.
Being a smart shopper is a trademark of Filipinos. And so is the tendency to overspend. The primary reason to find the best buy is not to save per se, but to save to buy other more items. But come to think of it, the expenditure is still the same.
Using two credit cards is pretty practical. But purchasing using cash is way better. Not having any credit card enhances your skill to fight off temptations to buy unnecessary items. Having cash helps you to budget more as you tend to worry of whether you might exhaust all your funds and end up having nothing to pay for some items.
Forget about installments. I agree, but some items which you really want and you think you can pay later on maybe available on a “0%” payment scheme. Go ahead, don’t deny yourself the pleasure of acquiring one, it is your money anyway.
Read Cruz’ full article here.
Live it and have your way to merry thrifty Christmas without having to worry for the coming year.
