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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- What is your level of risk tolerance?
- What are your goals?
- What are your timeframes?
- 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.
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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/
Money is a …
