Save Your Family: Think Small this Holiday Season

I thought it was going to be impossible for me to write
anything but a totally "Bah Humbug!" blog today. I don’t recall a time when
I’ve felt so pessimistic about the financial future most of us face.

Gloomy
The signs that people are having trouble making ends meet
are everywhere. Consider the findings in the Center
for American Progress’s latest economic forecast:

• Wage growth is low.
• Benefits are disappearing.
• Family debt is on the rise.
• Home equity is declining.

Gloomier
These findings are confirmed in Demos’s new report, "By a Thread: The New Experience of America’s
Middle Class," which finds that two out of three middle class families are on shaky financial ground. According to Demos, middle-class families need to
have:

"– Financial assets
sufficient to develop a safety net in case of job loss or serious illness,
build a solid nest egg for a secure future and comfortable retirement, and help
children get off to a good start toward economic security;
– The education necessary to find a good job in today’s competitive global economy;
– Incomes that make it
possible to afford quality housing and other essential living expenses; and
– Comprehensive, high
quality, affordable healthcare for all family members to ensure that care is
available when needed and that financial stability is not eroded in case of
serious illness."

Sounds
like the pretty basic American Dream, doesn’t it? Yet only 31% of families that
would be considered middle-class are financially secure and more than half of
these families have no net financial
assets whatsoever.

Gloomiest
On
top of that, every American owes around $30,000 as their share of the national
debt!

And
then I saw the results of an online
survey from Junior
Achievement, which shows that over half of teens may bust their budgets
this holiday season. Believe it or not, this finding cheered me up! We can do something about it, while so many of the bigger problems are beyond our control.

Turns
out that over eight out of ten teens who said they’d spend more, would do it
when they know someone really wanted the gift. "Aha!," I thought. If we invest
a little time, and talk with the teens in our lives about small but meaningful
gifts … we can help them keep to their budgets. It can be much more challenging than going for bigger-ticket items, but the payoff can be big, too. In the process, we may be
inspired to keep to our holiday budgets.

Then
we can segue right on to New
Year’s Resolutions that will get our families on the right financial track. But for now, let’s think small and about the teens in our lives! It’s a place to begin.

Small but Meaningful Gifts
My
favorite low-priced present is a can-opener. We used to have this really old, persnickety, hand-crank
opener. Then one Christmas, a friend gave us a sturdier and more reliable model (also
non-electric). It was so thoughtful, and as anyone who has ever been in our
kitchen will tell you, we’re still using it, 20 years later! In fact, it was recently invaluable
when we were trying to coax a sick cat to eat. The mere sound of taking the "new"
opener out of the drawer helped to get him interested in eating.

If my can-opener story won’t get you anywhere with your teens, check out Gerri Detweiler’s great article,"Seven Priceless Holiday Gifts That Won’t Break Your Budget," on Credit.com. And please share your favorite low-priced presents with us. The teen … and family … you inspire may be your own!

Nancy Castleman – Co-author of "Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life" and founder of Good Advice Press.
Nancy has spent the last 23 years teaching people how to get out of
debt, save money, and live better on less. She writes on all these
subjects for CreditBloggers.com.

Tagged as: budget tips, christmas budget, christmas credit, christmas spending, credit blog, credit news, credit tips, holiday budget, holiday credit, holiday gift tips, holiday spending

Nancy Castleman