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Speaker 1: Let's say good morning now to the host of How

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Speaker 1: to Money every Sunday right here on KFI. It's Joel Larsgard.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Joel, Morning Amy.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so we're forty four days away from Christmas, and

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Speaker 1: it's time to start thinking about what you're going to

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Speaker 1: get for who and how much you're going to spend.

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Speaker 1: And I was thinking, and I know people say I

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Speaker 1: talk about Christmas too much, but I think you got

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Speaker 1: a plan for it this year, because you know, budgets

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Speaker 1: are tightening.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is why my suggestion is always to

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Speaker 3: have a sinking fund and to start putting money in

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Speaker 3: at the beginning of the year. Right, So just a

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Speaker 3: little lesson upfront for Christmas twenty twenty six started in January,

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Speaker 3: truly starts saving for it. Because there's this new survey

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Speaker 3: from US News something like four and five Americans are

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Speaker 3: concerned they're not going to have enough money for gifts

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Speaker 3: this holiday season. And I know it's one of those

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Speaker 3: things that you don't necessarily want to set money aside

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Speaker 3: throughout the year because you're like, I'll figure it out

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Speaker 3: when the time comes. But when the time comes, you're

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Speaker 3: superduper stressed and you're pulling out your hair because you like,

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Speaker 3: I don't have enough money to pay for the gifts

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Speaker 3: that I want to get for everybody, and it's a

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Speaker 3: really frustrating, tenuous situation. So the crucial thing is to

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Speaker 3: plan ahead so that you have the money for the gifts.

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Speaker 3: It's like saving four maintenance items for your house, right

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Speaker 3: you know they're going to come down the pike.

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Speaker 2: You know what's going to happen.

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Speaker 3: Christmas comes every year, like it or not, and so yeah,

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Speaker 3: your holiday spending, you need to be preparing for that.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a crucial thing. Right now, we're getting

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Speaker 3: really close to Christmas, and so if you don't have

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Speaker 3: the money to buy the gifts that you typically buy

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Speaker 3: for the people that you love, now is the time.

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Speaker 3: It's November eleventh, We still have enough time from Christmas

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Speaker 3: where you can at least have conversations with your family about, hey,

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Speaker 3: here's my financial priorities and actually buying it's on a

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Speaker 3: Christmas gifts isn't going to fit into the budget this year.

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Speaker 3: Can we do some sort of secret standa for the adults?

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Speaker 3: Can we limit gifts in this way or that and

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Speaker 3: or dial back on the number of people you typically

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Speaker 3: buy for There are ways to kind of make a pivot,

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Speaker 3: but do it with an open conversation with other members

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Speaker 3: of your family, so you don't just show up to

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Speaker 3: Christmas empty handed and make everybody mad.

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Speaker 1: Okay, But then Joel, then tell me what you do

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Speaker 1: if you run into what I just did with my brother.

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Speaker 1: I literally had this conversation with him. I was I

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Speaker 1: had you, I was channeling you, and I said, Rob,

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Speaker 1: I think we should kind of cut back this year

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Speaker 1: a little bit, and he goes, oh, shut up, We're

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Speaker 1: not cutting back. Okay, I guess I'll go shop in.

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Speaker 2: To buy something nice of your brother at least, right,

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Speaker 2: you know.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well, you know, I think that one of the

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Speaker 1: other things that's kind of awkward about Christmas sometimes is

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Speaker 1: like you're like, well, did I spend enough on this person?

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Speaker 1: And did I spend the equal amount on that person?

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Speaker 1: And I kind of I don't play the money game

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Speaker 1: so much. It's more like, try to find something that

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Speaker 1: you think that they would like, and if one of

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Speaker 1: them costs fifty dollars and one of them costs one

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars, that's okay. They don't have to all be equitable.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think kind of what you're getting at

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Speaker 3: in that conversation is what you did was suggest, hey,

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Speaker 3: maybe we should do this.

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Speaker 2: I think he shut me down, and he shot you down.

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Speaker 3: I think what people can really respond well to is saying, hey, listen,

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Speaker 3: I have these financial goals that I got to meet

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Speaker 3: and I cannot. I will not going to debt. I

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Speaker 3: do not want that credit card debt hangover in January.

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Speaker 2: I've done it before. It really stinks.

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Speaker 3: It takes months to get out of and twenty two

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Speaker 3: percent interest rates, Like it's just not physically possible for me.

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Speaker 3: So can we shift in a way that allows me

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Speaker 3: to enjoy us, to enjoy Christmas together, but it prevents

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Speaker 3: me from going down that dark path of extensive debt

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Speaker 3: that I really don't need to be doing to make

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Speaker 3: this holiday season quote unquote great.

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Speaker 2: And what are other ways we can make this holiday

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Speaker 2: season great?

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Speaker 3: So like put pin it on yourself and say I

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Speaker 3: can't do it like we've been doing it and I

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Speaker 3: love Christmas. There's other like, for instance, my siblings, we

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Speaker 3: go out to an inexpensive dinner like that is our

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Speaker 3: sibling Christmas hang We don't get each other gifts and

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Speaker 3: so it's much less expensive because it's just a cheap

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Speaker 3: dinner and it's a great way to be together. I

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Speaker 3: think there are a lot of options like that, and honestly,

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Speaker 3: people appreciate the honesty and the humility to be like,

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Speaker 3: I just can't do it this year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so be honest and have that tough conversation.

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Speaker 1: And one quick question about you said, you know, do

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Speaker 1: that savings account which we're going to start in January

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Speaker 1: and set aside a little bit every month. Do you

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Speaker 1: need to have a dedicated account or do you just

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Speaker 1: keep track of it? Because I feel like if I

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Speaker 1: just put it in there and say it's there, but

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Speaker 1: it's intermixed with my other money, I might tap into it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So that's a great question. I think

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Speaker 2: you can.

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Speaker 3: If you're keeping a spreadsheet and you're keeping track of

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Speaker 3: your expenses and you're that dedicated, I think you can

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Speaker 3: keep it all in one place. One of my favorite things.

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Speaker 3: One of the reasons why I think Ally is actually

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Speaker 3: one of the best places to open a save mus

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Speaker 3: account is because and a couple other people do this too,

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Speaker 3: but Ally does it well. I think they might have

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Speaker 3: been first. The savings buckets that they offer are really

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Speaker 3: great because they allow you to like toss money into

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Speaker 3: certain certain buckets that you have listed, like, all, this

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Speaker 3: is my vacation bucket, and I'm putting one hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty dollars a month into that. This is my Christmas bucket.

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Speaker 3: I'm putting fifty dollars a month into that. So I've

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Speaker 3: got six hundred bucks by the time Christmas rolls around,

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Speaker 3: and I'm not putting it on the credit card. So

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Speaker 3: the buckets are a great way to do it. There's

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Speaker 3: also Monarch Money, which is just recently changed our name

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Speaker 3: to Monarch. It's a great it's like Mint but for

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Speaker 3: modern times, and it's a great budgeting software that also

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Speaker 3: simultaneously allows you to kind of create those items the

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Speaker 3: savings goals, but it doesn't but you don't actually have

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Speaker 3: to have an account with buckets to take part in that.

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Speaker 3: So I like that as a way to kind of

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Speaker 3: mentally separate money for different purposes.

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Speaker 1: Right, okay, and then before we let you go, this

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Speaker 1: is sort of a bookkeeping thing, but you say it's

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Speaker 1: super important, and that is beneficiaries make sure that they're

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Speaker 1: listed and they're the right ones.

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Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, this is so important. I can't even

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Speaker 3: tell you how important this is. And this is something

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Speaker 3: that we dealt with recently in my family with the

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Speaker 3: passing of my.

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Speaker 2: Stepfather or my wife's stepfather.

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Speaker 3: And he just the beneficiaries were listed incorrectly on some

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Speaker 3: really important policies, like a life insurance policy. And this

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Speaker 3: is there was an article in the Wall Street Journal

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Speaker 3: about this just a couple of days ago. The beneficiaries

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Speaker 3: often who's listed as a beneficiary on your retirement account

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Speaker 3: or on your life insurance policy. It trumps what's in

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Speaker 3: your will, and most people they set it and forget it.

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Speaker 3: And maybe if they had if they opened this account

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Speaker 3: twenty thirty years ago, they haven't changed the beneficiary. They

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Speaker 3: haven't thought through who is should get this money if

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Speaker 3: I were to meet my untimely death. And so the

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Speaker 3: beneficiary is one of this crucial things. It takes a

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Speaker 3: couple of minutes to go in there and check and

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Speaker 3: to update if necessary, but make sure you know who's

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Speaker 3: listed as a beneficiar on all those accounts, insurance policies

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Speaker 3: and retirement accounts, so that God forbid, if you were

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Speaker 3: to pass away prematurely, that money goes into the right hands.

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Speaker 3: Because if the beneficiary is listed in correct, it's going

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Speaker 3: to that person. Even if you're like, man, that was

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Speaker 3: my ex spouse. I didn't want them to get the money.

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Speaker 3: I wanted my current spouse to get the money. Sorry,

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Speaker 3: there's nothing you can really do about it after the

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Speaker 3: fact most of the time.

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Speaker 1: All right. Great advice as always from the host of

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Speaker 1: how to Money on KFI. It's Joel Larsgard, and you

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Speaker 1: can listen to more great financial tips and tricks when

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Speaker 1: you listen to Joel this weekend. He's on Sundays from

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Speaker 1: noon to two right here at KFI, and you can

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Speaker 1: also follow him how to Money Joel at how to

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Speaker 1: Money Joel. Thank you, Joel lars Larsgard.

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Speaker 2: Of course, thanks Amy,