Flourish Health & Wellbeing Magazine - Dec23 - Flipbook - Page 80
Jingle all the way
To help you ho, ho, hold on to your money and not
look like a Grinch consider:
Make, re-use, re-cycle, re-gi昀琀. Good for the
environment and your wallet. Two-minute videos
on ‘how to…’ will get you going. Pay it forward —
especially for goodwill.
Budget-friendly boundaries. Set up spending limits
for gi昀琀 exchanges and turn your gi昀琀ing game into a
friendly compe琀椀琀椀on, where everyone stays within
the budget.
Secret Santa. Instead of buying gi昀琀s for everyone,
consider a Secret Santa or White Elephant gi昀琀
exchange. This is the perfect way to reduce the
number of gi昀琀s you purchase while keeping the
excitement alive.
Home is where the heart is. Instead of going out to
pricey venues, host gatherings at home, which can be
more cost-e昀昀ec琀椀ve and cosy. Ask everyone to bring
a plate to broaden the bu昀昀et and showcase their
talents. This saves you 琀椀me and money, enabling you
to spend more both with family and friends.
Sleigh that debt
It’s 琀椀me to rein in lifestyle debt – and keep it down. Lifestyle debt relates to money you’ve
borrowed to pay for things like presents or a holiday by using credit cards or personal loans.
This type of loan can suck you into a black hole and diminish your wealth over 琀椀me.
You pay interest on that borrowed money if the loan isn’t repaid in full each month –
and that’s only if you’ve got a good credit card. That out昀椀t you really had to have for the
Christmas party ends up cos琀椀ng you more.
If you’ve got a mortgage, see how your budget’s impacted by tes琀椀ng your loan
repayments rise by 3%. Called the ‘serviceability bu昀昀er rate’ it’s set by APRA and lenders
are required to use it when checking if you can a昀昀ord to repay a loan should interest
rates rise — as they currently are.