Keene Young Professionals Network

In these tough economic times, we are constantly bombarded with news of bank failures, home foreclosures, and job losses. Many people around the world are affected by this financial crisis. Retailers in America are wondering how they will profit this holiday season with everyone pinching their pennies. The government speaks of economic stimuli and wishes to fix some of the problems by encouraging us to spend our money.
While spending is important to the overall economy, you have to look at the financial choices you make within your own home. Are you going to pay the rent or buy that new plasma TV? Obviously, the answer should be keeping the roof over your head, but with this holiday season many people are faced with a bigger issue, one that affects us on a psychological level. This issue is of course, gift giving.

The Holiday season is stressful for everyone, and everyone has a list of people that they would like to give gifts to. Unfortunately, many of us simply cannot afford to give to everyone on that list. How do we cut it down without hurting people’s feelings or causing added stress this year?

The first step would be to take a look at that list of yours and decide which ones you should really buy for. If you have children the answer is obvious, you have to have some gifts under the tree. It’s simply part of being a parent, whether those gifts are necessities like clothes or wants like the latest fad toy, you have to have at least a couple items for your children to unwrap. If your children are older and understand the concept of money, you may try to set their expectations early by explaining that this year is tight, and you can’t afford to give them everything. They may not like it, but speaking from childhood experience, I can tell you that now that I’m an adult and have to pay my own way, I understand where my mother was coming from and I am still thankful what I received every year for Christmas, even if it was new socks.

If you don’t have children, you may have a little extra money set aside for your family and friends. It’s hard to make cuts to the list of the people that are closest to you, but it may be necessary. Take a moment to explain to your friends that this year is tight for everyone and while you wish you could give everyone a gift, you can’t. Also, ask that they not give you something either. The last point important because, think about the last time someone gave you a gift and you did not have anything for them. How did that make you feel? What if you gave someone a gift and didn’t receive something in return? While this goes against the globally accepted concept of gift giving, we can all admit that sometimes it’s a drag.

Every year, things change, your friends get married or have kids, and you may feel obligated to buy for their children as well, eventually almost everyone in your group will have kids, and not many people can afford to buy for everyone. Again, this is an opportunity to have a conversation. Many people will give a gift to an infant’s first Christmas, Hanukah, etc, but make sure your friends know that it won’t be an every year occurrence. If the roles are reversed, try to understand the position you are putting your own friends in, be proactive, tell them it’s not expected of them to give a gift.

If you set the expectation with everyone before the holidays arrive, everyone will be able to focus on the happiness of togetherness, and nobody will have their feelings hurt.

After you get your list narrowed down, decide how much you plan to spend, and how you are going to do it. It helps to grab an old fashioned piece of paper and pen and jot down everyone that you plan to give a gift to this year. Then decide how much you will spend on each, and write that down as well and total it up.

If you don’t have money in your savings account, don’t immediately reach for the plastic. As a banker I can tell you that January and February are some of the busiest months for debt consolidation loans, and it’s really not financially healthy. Chances are you will be paying for this year’s gifts for two, three or sometimes four years later. Not a good idea. Many retailers offer lay-a-way. There’s a term that nobody has heard of in years! For a percentage of your purchase, you can have the store set aside your items and you can make weekly payments to pay down the bill and pick it up later. Many of these retailers offer this at zero interest but make sure you check the rules. This is also handy if you don’t have a hiding place for your gifts if you happen to have a house full of spies.

The other option is setting aside money every week into a separate account and go shopping later, keep in mind, the closer you get to the Holiday, the more items become hard to find. So set a target “shopping date” and figure out how much you need to set aside to reach your goal and then go shopping! And when you do shop, beware of sales, not everything on “Black Friday” (The day after Thanksgiving for you lay people) is actually on sale, search online, find the best prices and make sure to account for shipping and handling charges.

Once we get through this season, start planning for 2009. Yes, this year has been stressful, but we’re going to be dealing with the same issues next year, so be proactive. Some credit unions and banks still offer accounts called “Club Accounts” some have a weekly or monthly deposit obligation, but these can be great tools because you can have a small amount of money from your paycheck every week go to this account and then next fall, typically end of October your institution will mail you a check or deposit the funds into your checking account.

In case you were wondering, yes we do offer Holiday Club accounts at Connecticut River Bank, NA. and if you were interested, you can give me a call. I hope that this Holiday season goes smoothly for everyone and may it be as stress-free as possible.

Bryan Cole
Personal Banker
Connecticut River Bank, NA
Phone: 603-357-1619