The holidays are not a surprise. Christmas comes every single year. Thanksgiving comes every single year. New Year's Eve comes every single year. And yet most people walk into November completely unprepared, spend the entire season figuring it out as they go, and start January carrying a credit card balance they are going to spend the next several months trying to pay off. If that cycle sounds familiar, this episode is going to change how you think about the next five months.

One of the biggest reasons people cannot stay out of debt is not a spending problem, it is a planning problem. Your list of bills only accounts for the things you already know are coming, and the holidays never make that list until it is too late to do anything about them. And before you tell yourself you will handle it with your bonus, I want you to sit with this question: what if the bonus is not as big as you expect, or what if it does not come at all? Future money is not a holiday plan, and this episode is about building a real one.

I am walking you through a visual planning exercise I use with clients that puts actual numbers to every part of your holiday season, from the parties you are hosting and attending to family dinners, travel, decorations, and gifts. Once you know what the holidays are actually going to cost you, you can figure out exactly how much you need to save between now and December and start making decisions in advance instead of reacting when November shows up on your calendar.

In this episode you'll learn...

[00:04:15] Why the holidays are one of the main reasons people cannot stay out of debt and why waiting until November to think about them is already too late to do anything meaningful about it

[00:08:30] The three box and four box planning exercise that helps you map out every part of your holiday season so nothing catches you off guard and you can put a real number to what November through January is actually going to cost you

[00:13:45] How to think through parties, family experiences, travel, and gifts in a way that gets specific enough to actually change what you put in your budget starting this month

[00:18:20] How to figure out whether you are on or off track with your holiday savings right now, what to do if you have a gap, and how to decide in advance which trade-offs you are willing to make so you can say yes where it matters and no where it does not

[00:23:10] Why planning for the holidays in advance actually allows you to spend less and be more thoughtful with your gifts, and how giving yourself more time changes the quality of the decisions you make with your money

[00:27:30] Why budgeting is a skill that gets better every single season you practice it, and how this holiday planning exercise is also building the foundation that keeps you out of debt next year and every year after

Tune in to this episode of Money Files to learn how to plan a debt-free holiday season starting right now so that when December comes you have the money on hand, you are not figuring it out as you go, and you walk into January without a credit card balance hanging over you.

Get full show notes and the episode transcript: https://wealthovernow.com/the-debt-free-holiday-planning-method-that-starts-in-july-not-november/

Links mentioned in this episode…

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