Over half of Americans are anticipating financial strain from holiday expenses. Here's how to avoid it.
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00:0062% of Americans anticipate financial strain around holiday expenses.
00:06So what are your best tips for budgeting wisely to avoid overspending or making unnecessary purchases?
00:16Yes, and when we asked that in that survey, were they feeling the strain?
00:20They also, 59%, said they're going to make the most of their money by shopping at discount stores.
00:26So get the deals.
00:27The go-to-warehouse stores, discount stores, that can really help your money go further.
00:32And why we have Cyber Monday as the day and Black Friday are the days that our consumers say they're going to spend the most on,
00:41is really to get those deals.
00:43You also should use a rewards credit card, as that enables you to get rewarded for your spend,
00:48which you can use to then pay off some of that holiday spend after the fact.
00:53In fact, our survey said that 40% of the clients that we surveyed plan on using rewards to offset their purchases.
01:00So we at Bank of America have a customized cash rewards card where you can get 3% back on select categories that you get to pick.
01:09Online shopping is one of them.
01:10So it's just a great way to make the most of your money.
01:12So take me back to that 62%, because I always like to have some kind of comparison.
01:17Is that better than in previous years? Is that worse than previous years?
01:22Yeah, well, 62% seems high, because holiday spend purchasing puts stress on the consumer.
01:29But it's down from 67% last year.
01:32So we've seen some areas of the goods and things start to go down from an inflationary perspective.
01:39So that's relieving the consumer, but it's still high.
01:4262% feel the stress of holiday purchases.
01:46Talk to me about the importance of budgeting before heading out to go shopping or sitting down to go shopping.
01:53Yeah, absolutely, because it's really easy to make impulse purchases and then spend way more than you were intending.
01:59So we recommend that you allocate 50% of your income to your necessities, 30% to spending on those things that are discretionary, and 20% for savings.
02:11Now, recognizing the holiday season may be difficult to stick to those ratios.
02:16So maybe you save a little less during the holiday season.
02:19And once you've defined how much you can spend, then make that list.
02:23And remember, there are deals out there that you should take advantage of.
02:27Always use your rewards credit card so you can get cash back for your purchases or rewards points you can use for other things.
02:35And then also remember that homemade thoughtful gifts don't cost a lot, but can be actually even more meaningful to those purchased gifts.