What is Christmas REALLY COSTING YOU in your life???

December 4th, 2010 Tags: money management, personal finance
Posted in Rae Brent

This time of the year is usually filled with love, joy and the Christmas Spirit, which is great, but many people are left in dire financial situations, after embarking on a huge ‘over’ spending spree. And for what purpose?

Our need to ‘buy’ our loved ones that ‘perfect’ gift drives us to lose sight of what is important in our own lives and ultimately dictates our standard of living.

One of my good friends used to be caught in that never ending bad credit cycle. She always wanted to give everyone what they wanted at Christmas time, and would wear the consequences of her actions for a good half a year or more, as she paid down her credit card only to do it again the next Christmas and the next, etc.

The other thing that she would do year after year was to make a New Years resolution to reduce her spending. That would realistically last until the next shiny thing appeared which would always be during the post Christmas sales. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Or maybe someone you know?

When I asked my friend about her financial goals she just gave me a puzzled look and said that she didn’t know what I was talking about. Her answer shocked me. After a short discussion about what she wanted to achieve in her life I started to explain to her how the use of a budget could actually help her attain her financial goals. Her immediate response was that budgets are evil and they restricted her current standard of living.

Ah, hello! Wasn’t her standard of living already restricted by maxed out credit cards???

My parents instilled in me from a young age good financial skills and knowledge. They showed me how to implement a budget to achieve my financial goals and achieve great wealth, as well as having fun along the way.

By using a budget to my advantage with the ability to invest my pocket money I was able to start my journey to wealth creation from a young age. I had a knack of knowing what I wanted in life and what I was prepared to do to achieve that result. By knowing these two things, a budget is an integral addition to any one’s strategy to create their ideal life.

As I said earlier, my friend sees budgeting as restrictive and as a burden. Her up brining was very different to mine. Money was never spoken of and the family’s finances were hidden from her as a child. So what she did learn about budgeting was from school, which incidentally was the same place where she was told that she was bad at math. This obviously left a bad impression so she rebelled against her own finances. She has a big heart and loves to give, but she is so unaware of her financial situation, that it is sending her broke.

This started me to thinking how many people are there that have similar money issues as my friend. Well it turns out there are heaps.

Most people just manage their finances enough to get from pay packet to pay packet.

What if you could do it a different way?

Merry Christmas.

Love, Light and Abundance,

Rae Brent

The Camuoflaged Investor