Mindful Money Tips For the Holidays

These are strategies I have used to keep my costs under control during the holidays. They are simple, but I found they have made shopping less stressful especially when I have not had a lot of money. The most important thing is to make mindful money decisions this Christmas.

Here are my top three ways to make mindful money decisions. You can use them whether you are shopping in person or online. 

  1. Have an idea on what you are going to get people. Go window-shopping or look online to see what is available and where the best prices are. Resist the urge to buy right way. On your second trip make your purchase. This will help you know if you are getting a good price. If you only want to shop once than make a circle of the mall before you make your purchase.  
  2. Pay with cash. I found this is the best way to stick to my budget. It is easier to tap your card, but this can lead to mindless spending. If you don’t want to use cash, you your debt card rather than your credit card.
  3. Plan. Before you set out decided how much you are going to spend in total and for each person. This can keep you from overspending mindlessly. If you have a budget, you can make an informed decision about how you are spending your money.

I still follow these ideas because they keep me from getting overwhelmed and overspend during the holidays. Remember it is not about being perfect, it is about learning to use your money with intension.

Have a joyous holiday season.

If you have a question, send me a message.

Start Investing – 4 Questions

Four Questions to Answer Before Investing

You have been saving money and now you want to take the next step and start investing, but are not sure where to start. Investing helps you build your wealth faster then savings because you receive higher returns. The higher returns are the result of the increased risk that comes with investing. Meaning you could lose some of your investments. One of the first things you need to decide when you start investing is how comfortable are you with risk.  You also need to decide what your goals are, and what is your timeframe for each goal. Are your goals timeframe five years or twenty or more? The more time you have the more money you can earn and the less you have to event.

Answering the following questions will help you decide what type of investments you should purchase.

  1. What is your level of risk tolerance?
  2. What are your goals?
  3. What are your timeframes?
  4. What level of help do you want?

The reason you should start with determining your level of risk because it will help you narrow down the types of investments you should consider investing in. Investing is a long term activity and you may own different investments between five to 60 years. This means that the value of the investments go up and down. You need to be honest with yourself about how comfortable seeing your investments lose money.

Your goals help you determine how much money you need. It will also help you determine how much time you have before you need the money and how much you need to put into the investment. This in turn helps you figure out what return you need. The longer your timeframe the lower all these amounts will be. This is because the value of investments grows over time and the more time you have the more, they grow.

Finally, you need to decide on what type of help you need investing. If you want more guidance you can sign up with an investment advisor at a full-service brokerage, but if you want to do it on your own you can sign up with a direct investment service or with an online broker.  The fees for the brokerage will depend on the level of service they provide.

Click here to signup to receive the next Monthly Money Tip.

Simple Money Talk’s Future

I created Simple Money Talk because I wanted to help women gain confidence around making money decisions. This is still an important goal for Simple Money Talk, but after 10 years I have decided to shift the focus to providing information and online courses on helping women start investing. It is important that we get our money working for us. Especially in times of high inflation and interest rates.

The first course will be on the language of investing and focus on providing participants with a good understanding of what it means to invest, and the terms used. It will start by making sure we know what your money goals are. Then we will look at the several types of investing such as GICs, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, bonds, and stocks. What the risks are when you invest your money and the returns each type of investment can provided.

The second course will help you understand the basics of how you can start investing. We will look at how we invest through discount brokers, regular brokers, advisers, and robo-advisers. What are fees when you invest as well as tax beneficial products the government of Canada has. These include TFSAs and RRSPs.

I am looking forward to creating these courses for you. The Language of Investing launches on September 12, 2023, and the Basics of Investing on November 12, 2023.

If you are interested please send me a message and I will keep you updated with the launch. Follow me on social media. https://www.instagram.com/simple_money_talk/ or https://www.facebook.com/simplemoneytalk/

No Money Left at the End of the Month?

Unconscious spending could be the reason.

Unconscious spending are purchases that are made out of convince or habit rather than with an eye on budgets or long term planning. (FP Canada, 2022)

LIKE WHAT?

  • Adding items to get perks like free shipping
  • Using a credit card to make payments
  • Buying more than you planned because it was on sale

Money Tip – Following My Own Advice

The first step in creating a financial plan is to decide goals for you, your family, and your money. To create a plan, you also need to know how you are using your money and determine how much money you are going to need to achieve them.

During the month of October, I’m going to be following my own steps and tracking my spending. In the past, I have tried a few methods to keep track of my spending. I have been most successful entering my spending into a notebook or spreadsheet everyday, this is the accountant in me. I have tried other methods such as:

  • Keeping my receipt for the week and recording my spending at the end of the week
  • Allocating different amount for spending from my budget and reducing the amounts as they are spent.  This is known as the jar or envelope method
  • Using my bank and credit card statements by checking all transactions and assigning them to the budget categories

 This time I’m going to try the Mint app. I do not have an affiliation with Mint.

If you would like help and support to start tracking your spending, please let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing me at colleen@simplemoneytalk.com

Making plans for the future

I was recently asked if I could retire soon. No was my answer. There are too many things I want to do.

Everything from developing Simple Money Talk workshops, opening a plus size dress shop and the paper shop I’ve been talking about for years. Why haven’t I done these things yet? Fear. I’m working on getting over it. I guess I have to step off the high diving board and know I will be okay when I hit the water.

I guess we all have different ideas about what retirement will look like us. A friend was telling me that she is planning on doing creating things – wood carving, painting and whatever else she finds on Pinterest that she wants to try.

Let me know in the comments, what your ideal retirement looks like?