Do You Regret Your Holiday Spending?

January holiday regret stinks, doesn't it? Just listen to these stats. 36% of Americans took on holiday debt this season. The average, $1,181 in new debt. And here's the problem.That's up from last year, which had a big number. Last year's was $1,028. And that tells us that holiday debt is still climbing. But here's the sad part. 42% of those who borrowed said this.They said we regret spending as much as we did. And here's the bigger problem. Most won't pay it off quickly. 37% say it'll take several months. 7% said they expect it six months or more.And listen to this. Nearly half, 46% of Americans are still paying off last year's holiday debt. Which leads me to today's question.Ralph, every January, I look back and wish I'd spent less and saved more during the holidays. How can I avoid regret this year? What a great question. See, the holiday should bring us joy.That's why I'm doing this whole series, how to have Joy without going Broke. But if we're not careful, January brings regret. So let's stop that cycle before it starts. That's exactly what I'm covering on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hello there. Welcome to the show. I'm Ralph. I'm helping you break that cycle of financial shame with covenants.Today we're going to break that cycle of rolling into January and having that holiday debt. And listen, I've spent decades in the trenches with accounting folks and coaching people.And I've seen several hundreds of my clients start the new year with what we'll call the holiday debt hangovers. Nobody likes a hangover. I remember when I was younger, I used to drink. Well, I don't drink at all right now because I felt like I had a problem.But you feel that hangover, man, it just lasts on you and it lingers. And I've had that same holiday debt hangover in January. And you get off the holidays, you're coming from that high. Fun with family, fun with friends.And then, wow, those credit card statements come in. It just completely breaks your joy, it breaks your peace because I think you're just trying to chase that December perfection.Let me tell you about a friend of mine named Jake. Jake and I have known each other since we were in high school together.And Jake shared with something me On Facebook a couple weeks ago, he said, ralph, I gotta break this cycle this year. He said, every January, man, I get into a slump, I get into a depression. He said, because every January, those credit card balances are off.I get the statements. I'm like, what am I gonna do? And he says, ralph, what's your idea? I said, here, I got an idea for you, Jake. Write yourself a note.He's like, what are you talking about, Ralph? We're pretty transparent with each other. And I said, here's what I want you to do. I just want you to write a note for yourself, get a piece of paper.Because now we're in November as I'm recording this, and I want you to write this on a piece of paper. Don't trade January piece for December pressure. And he says, okay, Ralph, I'm going to try that.So I'm going to encourage you today in our action, I'm going to tell you to do something just like. But let's get to a quote. Today we got this quote from financial expert Susie Ormond, and she just nails it.She said, you can't enjoy the holidays if January feels like punishment. If you're looking at January like I'm going to prison in January, or you're going to be feeling this deep depression.So let's get back to our question today. How can we avoid this regret this year? How can we finally break that cycle? I've got five ways that I can tell you to avoid that January regret.First one is this. This is what I work with, Jake. We got to visualize a little bit. Little visualization exercise right now. So imagine this.You wake up on the 10th of January and imagine checking your bank statement and you've got money in your account, or checking that credit card statement and your balance hasn't grown. How does that make you feel? What's the feeling of it? Do you feel happy? Do you feel joy? That joy of the holidays continuing on?Or maybe you visualize January and you look at your bank statement and, man, you spent way more than you thought. And you get that credit card statement and you're like, man, another year. I'm still paying off last year's debt.Well, let that vision guide your decisions now, because, see, it's all about planning and preparing, not reacting. So that's the first thing. Do a visualization exercise. What do you want January to feel like? What do you want it to be?Second thing, I'm going to recommend that you identify what I'll call your regret zones. Real simple thing here. What are those things that are causing that regret? Is it gifts? Did you buy too much? Did you not set that budget?We've talked about that the last few days. Set that budget per person. Set that budget like we talked about yesterday for office parties.And remember, it's not about what you give, it's how much you care. But is that a regret zone? Maybe it's for you, it's travel. You spent too much doing travel. Set that budget ahead of time.You know, you might have to say no to some people this year. I know it's not an easy thing to do, but you might just say, listen, the economy's not great right now. We're struggling financially.We're not going to be able to do the traveling we used to do. Hey, maybe for you it's food. We talked about my father in law with his seafood soup and all the Santa Claus gift giving he did. So plan that.But really ask yourself, where do you usually go overboard? It's not an easy discussion to have. But if you identify those regret zones, it brings awareness. And awareness changes everything.Because awareness is really the key. So that's the second thing. Identify those regret zones. Third thing, create a plan. My oldest son says this all the time.If you don't have a plan, guess what? You're planning to fail. So create a plan. Write a budget for the holidays. Listen, this isn't about restriction. A lot of people get stuck on this.I'm going to plant a new seed with you today. I want you to do something called an intentional holiday spending plan. People go, budgets. I hate budgets. Ralph, you keep talking about budgets.Let's be intentional about it.It's not a boundary for joy, but it's an intentional holiday spending plan so that you get to January and you feel good about you did what you've done. You don't have that regret. You don't have that we call January hangover. So create a plan. Create that intentional holiday spending plan.Next thing I'm going to encourage you to do. We talked about this on yesterday's show. Say no early. See, it's easier to decline now than to apologize later for being broken. So learn to say no.This is what I'm going to spend. These are the people I'm going to spend for. Hey, there's a bunch of things you can do.You can be creative, you can do gifts of service, but stand firm in those. No, because it's easier to decline.Listen, when the bills are already in and your bank account is drained, there's not much you can do about it at that point except figure out a way to dig yourself out of it. But if we can prevent that crater in your finances from the beginning. So stand firm and do that.And last but not least, remember this peace is greater than pressure. Remind yourself this. Write this on something, put it in front of you. Christmas joy shouldn't come with January interest.Now that's a real financial way to look at it, isn't it? That joy shouldn't come with credit card interest. It shouldn't come with interest on personal loans, whatever that looks like for you.The joy needs to continue. You don't want to get into that January regret, which leads us to today's Bible verse.Now, this Bible verse is a little bit weird for today, but I think it really suits the idea of planning. It comes from Luke chapter 14, verse 28, and it says, suppose one of you wants to build a tower.Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? Anybody saying, ralph, I don't get it. How does that have anything to do with it? It's all about planning. And I want you to just embrace that today.It's building that intentional holiday spending plan. Because what was the Bible talking about? If you want to build a tower, you better figure out how to do it first. You better.You better figure out what the plan looks like. You better figure out how much it's going to cost.Because it goes on in the scripture and talks about, well, people will ridicule you if you're not able to finish it. Well, you're going to ridicule yourself in January if you have that post holiday regret. So do that today.Build that intentional holiday spending plan. Well, how about we pray together? We need some prayers today, don't we? Because this is not easy work. So, Lord, we come to you right now.We ask you for wisdom to help us plan ahead with peace. Lord, we want to continue that joy of the holidays.We are so grateful for you sending your son, Jesus Christ to us, Lord, that we want to just keep that joy flowing into January.So help us to avoid those traps of overspending and those feelings of guilt that come with us and teach us to value future peace over that present pressure. Lord, we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so you ready for your one action item for today?We're going to write a note to ourselves. It may seem a little hokey, but I'll tell you, this will work.I want you to write a note to yourself I want you to call this your January self note and just ask yourself this question and write this down. What do I want to thank myself for when the holidays are over? Really? That simple? Write that note today.What do I want to thank myself for when the holidays are over? Maybe you've saved money. You haven't gone into debt, you haven't run up those credit cards. You had a joyous season.And right now I want to ask you to do something for me. If this episode or this show is helping you, I want to encourage you to share it with somebody who needs to hear it.Today's show is one of those ones that you can share. Send a link to a friend who's stressed about holiday spending. Maybe post it to your social media. We love social media.Tag us on it so you know we can cheer you on as well. Leave a review on our website because it helps others find financial freedom too. And you can send them right to our website.That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com there's more resources there to break the cycle of financial shame and live in confidence. Remember this January peace beats December pressure. So plan now and thank yourself later. I want to encourage you right now.Go out there and live as a financially confident Christian. You can do this. I have confidence in you. And bigger than that, Christ himself has confidence in you.He wants you to be successful and enjoy the holiday season. So stay financially savvy. God bless you and I'll see you on tomorrow's show.