Did you know the average American puts the bulk of their Christmas/Hanukkah spending on a credit card and takes months to pay those charges back?
Buying that $50 cashmere sweater as a gift for your Cousin Nellie is nice, but if you can't afford to pay cash for it now and have to put it on a credit card, unless you pay the balance of the card in full before the next statement/billing cycle, that sweater will cost you more than $50 in the end and take you months to pay off.
In one of those reports they love to do this time of year, it was reported that the average American spent $835 on Christmas of 2007. If that person has the average credit card rate of 16% and makes only the minimum payment each month on their bill, it will take them 90 months to pay off the bill and they will have paid an additional $572.87 in interest, turning that $835 Christmas bill into a $1407.87 Christmas bill! In fact, as of Dec. 2009, that person who spent $835 in Dec. 2007 has only made 24 payments on that Christmas '07 bill and will continue to pay off that debt for another 5 and 1/2 years!!
How about you?
Are you using credit cards to pay for Christmas/Hanukkah and taking months to pay it off? If so, you are spending a lot more than what you think you are spending when all is said and done.
Step Away From the Credit Cards this Holiday Season!
Don't be intimidated by friends or family to spend more than you actually have now!
Give modest gifts that fit within your budget and give an abundant helping of yourself instead!
Make this the year you say NO MORE to Holiday Debt!
Make this the year you don't dread the January Fiscal Hangover!
Sluggy
