Canadian Personal Finance Blog

This seems to be the January battle cry for retail stores, “Since you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas, come here and squander more money, please”, or something to that effect. If you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? What if you wanted Peace on Earth, or have your hip replacement surgery scheduled? Can Canadian Tire do something about that for me? I don’t think so, but who knows?

Debt Reduction is like losing weight, you need to stop listening to your impulses and keep to the plan. Now if you planned to go to the after Christmas sales (like at the GAP), and spend the money you didn’t spend at Christmas, that is a valid (and a good) plan. My kids got gift cards for Christmas and then proceeded to buy 2/3 more clothing than they could have before Christmas at the GAP (makes an old man proud to see his kids learning the value of being cheap).

If you planned on spending a quiet January hidden in your nice warm bed, not worrying about bills, stick to that too. If you don’t have a plan for January, feel free to borrow this one, “I plan to not buy any more crap that I don’t need”, it’s a pretty good plan, which actually could be used for any month of the year.

If you continue to SPEND more than you MAKE you can either get a job as a politician or you can be sure you’ll never be able to retire, or stop worrying about your debt. Keep that in mind, when you think next, “I didn’t get that Deluxe Cheese Straightener I wanted for Christmas, and it’s on sale!”.

–C8j