Monday, June 24, 2019

A Fuzzy Financial Feeling: Avoiding Dread And Debt When Buying Your Children Gifts



It makes us feel fantastic when we see our children opening their presents on Christmas day or their
birthday. But, while this feeling of warmth and fuzziness can stay with us in the short-term, it soon
gives way to dread and debt. And it's not like we can avoid buying our children presents. After all,
it's part of the joy we experience as a parent. But this means that rather than get into debt, we’ve got
to put a plan in place so our children can get the presents they’d like. How can we do this?

Finding Short-Term Money Injections
Because purchasing presents is one of those activities that are few and far between in a financial
sense, we've got to figure out the times of the year when our present-buying activity spikes.
Sometimes it happens over the course of a year, and we can see that there are little jolts of activity
on our credit card. As such, if we can find ways to find the short-term cash injection for those time
periods, it's going to take the pressure off. While you can do things like sell structured settlement
payments or take out a short-term loan, you've got to think about putting a plan in place to put that
money back. If you can spread the cost out of repaying this over the course of the year, by taking on
a side hustle, or making lifestyle alterations in the short-term, you won't feel the almighty weight of
debt.

Banning Unnecessary Presents
As much as we want to give our children everything they want, we've got to draw the line somewhere.
Besides, we shouldn't get into debt for the sake of a day or two a year. As such, we should think about
what presents are essential. It's more about managing our children's expectations, as this will benefit
everyone in the long run. Because if our children are used to getting everything they want, we've got
to find ways to cut back on this. Perhaps limiting our children to a handful of presents for every
occasion will help. Yes, we want to give our children everything they want, but this isn’t realistic
unless we have money to burn.

Focusing On Experiences Rather Than Material Gifts
While we can put a financial plan in place throughout the year to purchase gifts for our children,
the most frustrating aspect of this, especially if you plan ahead, is that our kids may change their
minds on the turn of a dime. As such, we've got to alter our money-making strategy, or we’ve got to
magic up more money from thin air. If we focus on experiences rather than gifts, we are able to
bypass this. Material gifts are all well and good, but if we are thinking about our children's benefits
in the long term, will material goods provide the answer? If you focus on experiences, this will result
in long-lasting memories.

Financially speaking, it's difficult to put a plan in place if our children change their minds. It's a
combination of finding the right gifts, but also ensuring that we don't put ourselves in debt at the
same time.



LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails