It is October and, if it hasn’t already, the holiday season will soon start creeping up on us. We will see merchandise in the stores, ads on TV, decorations around town. I love the festivity of the season - the music, the scents (cinnamon, pine, cookies baking), the lights and even sometimes the hustle and bustle. But over the years I found my enthusiasm for the season waning, and I know why. I detest the commercialism of the season and the rampant consumerism it encourages.
Several years ago my SO and I made a radical change in how we handle Christmas. Well ahead of the season, we spoke to both our families and indicated that while we would like to celebrate with a meal and festivities, we would like to bow out of the gift-giving tradition. This is not a decision we made lightly, and we ventured into those conversations with much trepidation. We really did not know what kind of resistance we would face, and were fearful of hurting anyone’s feelings. But, you know what? With only one exception, the announcement was met with relief. Turns out almost everyone wanted this; we were just the first ones to verbalize it.
The change has been a happy one for us. We still celebrate the season, but minus the stress we used to feel having to select the right gift (or sometimes, gifts) for each person. The pressure to find something appropriate, for the right amount of money, was enormous. I still enjoy gift-giving, but prefer to do it on my own terms. If I find something that is just right for someone, I love to give a spontaneous gift or maybe save it for their birthday. But the crush of holiday gift giving was taking so much away from us that it was robbing us of the joy of the season.
Obviously our solution is not right for everyone (and retailers would hate it!). But maybe you can think about what brings you joy and what subtracts from that joy. I realized that what made me feel best about our decision was that we modified our holiday spending and shopping to align with our own priorities rather than what the media tells us we should be doing. Advertising is immensely powerful, even when we are aware of its effects. All the commercials showing happy gift exchanges, equating costly gifts with love, don’t help.
I found some statistics showing expected spending on holiday gifts for last year was $859 per shopper. And that was down from previous years. Even if you come in under the average, holiday expenses can mount up quickly, disrupting the best of budgets. If you have a desire to simplify or cutback on the holiday spending and expectations, here are some ideas to consider:
No matter what approach you take, it needs to be planned well in advance of the holidays. And, to be fair to the family members involved, it should be discussed and hopefully agreed upon by all well before the season. And, be patient with yourself. You may need a year or more to just mull over what change you really want to make, and then it can take time to build up the courage to bring it up. It took us several years of trying to figure out how to cut back before we decided how we wanted to handle the holidays.
Now, I look forward to the simple joys of the season once again. There is a small town located close to us that still decorates in the old-fashioned way: with enormous brightly colored lights strung back and forth across main street. There is a nearby park that launches the season with a holiday celebration that features local musicians and cider. I enjoy filling the house with the scent of freshly-baked cookies and breads and take pleasure in sharing my homebaked goods with friends and family. Several times during the season we get in the car after dark and drive around our favorite neighborhoods, enjoying lights and decorations. And best of all, we are able to stay out of the shopping malls.
Tags: shopping, simplicity, spending, thrift
As always, some great articles were written this week in the world of personal finance. Some of my favorite links came from the Finance Fiesta, hosted by the Mighty Bargain Hunter. Be sure to check these out:
Art of the Coupon:Why I am Glad We’ve Had Some Financial Struggles
I really enjoyed reading this one and agree wholeheartedly.
Passive Family Income:Profit in Tough Financial Times
Some cool-headed suggestions during a week with much turmoil.
Brip Blap:Frugality vs. Self-Sufficiency
Again, some clear thinking and good suggestions.
And I was pleased to have my article, Achieving Early Retirement Despite Big Money Mistakes, appear in the Finance Fiesta.
I’ve been selling on eBay since its first year. It wasn’t quite as easy back then; PayPal didn’t exist, you had to host your own pictures, and if you wanted any text formatting you had to know HTML. I suppose, in hindsight, that may have been a barrier to entry for some sellers and perhaps it made the selling all the more lucrative for those of us who could navigate the ins and outs of eBay selling.
I have a funny story about my selling in those early days. When I first discovered eBay, I declared that this was a perfect opportunity to clear out some clutter. I hate clutter and prefer to keep my home tidy by purging on a regular basis. But, I have never enjoyed hosting a yard sale with all the setup, cleanup, and haggling with buyers. So when I organized my first round of clutter treasures to be listed on eBay, I announced to my SO that I’d be holding an online garage sale. He heard me out, then re-stated my intentions as follows: “Let me make sure I understand correctly. You are going to photograph your stuff, list it on an online site, and people are going to send you money for it, hoping that you send the stuff to them?”. Defiantly, I said yes, that was exactly what I planned to do. You can probably guess how this turned out - it worked, I continued selling (eventually even sold a few items for him), and eBay became a household word.
Nowadays anyone can easily list and sell just about anything. And you can find plenty of tips and advice around the internet. Check out the following articles for some great advice:
Unsolicited eBay Advice
How to List an eBay Auction for Maximum Profit
7 Tips For Selling On eBay
Rather than re-hash much of what has already been said, I want to talk about another benefit I have found over the years. It is something that wasn’t obvious to me for a while, but it has proven to be an unexpected plus from selling stuff over the years. Selling things on eBay has helped me to see clearly the cost of depreciation, as well as the cost of buying things I may later decide I don’t want or need. Subconsciously, it has made me consider a couple of things now before I make a purchase:
So now, not only can I make a few extra bucks when I sell stuff, but I have become conditioned to think in a more thrifty fashion. It has trained me to think of more alternatives when I want to buy something. And, perhaps more importantly, it has caused me to evaluate the cost of depreciation for most of the non-consumable items I buy. Sure, depreciation is something we all know about when we buy a car. But what about a sofa, piece of jewelry, expensive piece of hobby equipment, trendy pair of boots, or fancy kitchen appliance? I have become so conditioned to thinking of buying used at the best price, and later reselling to maximize profit, that there have been times where I purchased something used at a very good price, and later sold it for a profit.
Obviously, this benefit isn’t limited to selling on eBay; it works whether you are buying/selling on eBay, Craigslist, flea market, yard sale, or other venues. The important thing is to become a critical buyer and a smart seller. If you haven’t tried selling your unwanted treasures online, I encourage you to give it a try. And then the next time you make a purchase, you may find yourself already thinking about its potential resale value.
Today marks my one-year anniversary of my retirement from full-time employment. One year ago, I was walking out of my office with that last box of “office stuff”, saying good-bye to my very good friends, and feeling a little nervous about what I had just done. I think now is the perfect time to reflect on my early retirement, and also to make note of some things I would do differently.
First off, do I miss anything? Yes, there certainly are a few things I miss, but nothing terribly surprising. Mostly, I miss seeing my coworkers on a daily basis. So many of them became my good friends, we were really more of an extended family. I still see them occasionally, of course, but it’s not the same as just walking down the hall and popping in for a chat or commiserating over the day’s events.
For the first few months of retirement, I missed the structure of my day. Even though I used to feel constrained by the 9-to-5 life, chained to a desk all day, it did give me a routine. And like it or not, routine is good for me. It has taken me some time, but I have developed some new routines and also come to value the newfound flexibility in my schedule. After all, the constraints of the job were one of my major complaints, so I ought to appreciate my new freedom. And I do.
As I look back, there are some things I’m glad I did before I retired. Briefly, those are:
- Live on the income I expected to have after retirement. For many years I lived on just a small percentage of my income, knowing that the benefits were twofold: it enabled me to save as much as possible, and also established a budget that would continue into retirement.
- Thoroughly investigate health insurance and obtain an individual policy before leaving the company group policy behind.
- Read as much as possible on investing, asset allocation, and early retirement. In particular, these books were very helpful: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing
- Make a list of ideas for part-time income. Even if I never pursue some of them, it gave me peace-of-mind just knowing that there were options for some occasional or part-time income if I wanted it.
- Make a list of things I wanted to do with my newfound time. I put together a very sketchy list of things I would like to do if I had more time. I did no filtering; I just listed everything I could think of. What suprised me about the list, after I reviewed it, is that all but one of them were either free or very inexpensive. I always thought that time was more important to me than money, and looking at the list convinced me of it.
Of course this post wouldn’t be complete unless I also mentioned a couple of things I wish I had done (or done more of) before I left the job. This includes:
- Re-balance my assets. After I read the The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing
- Spend more time considering what to do with my time. It was only in the few months before I retired that I started thinking about this. I spent so many years calculating my financial needs that I almost never thought about what I was going to do or how I would structure my days. While this may be what one of my friends terms “a happy problem”, it really would have been a smoother transition if I hadn’t felt so lost in the first few months of retirement.
What advice would I offer to someone thinking of retiring in the next couple of years? First of all, get your financial house in order. Make sure you know how much you need to live now by tracking expenses, and make sure your investments will support your expenses. If you will have a small business or work part-time, factor that income in. And don’t forget to spend time thinking about what you will do with your time. Whether it is travelling, volunteering, or spending time on hobbies, you can smooth out the transition by thinking about what your life will be like after you leave the job. And consider what your contingency plan will be if things don’t work out like you expect. In my opinion, flexibility is key to an early retirement.
I am happy to say that I have no regrets about leaving the job; the last year has been happy, rewarding, and ever-changing. I value my independence now even more than ever before, and remain willing to do whatever it takes to keep it. I look forward to seeing where the next year takes me.
Tags: money management, planning, saving
This week I had articles that appeared in the Carnival of Personal Finance and the Festival of Frugality. As usual, both are great resources with many thought-provoking articles. Some of my favorite articles include:
This is an incredible story - be sure to read it if you haven’t already. At the young age of 29, Madison has been able to leave her job behind.
We all make mistakes; the key is to learn from them and not make them again. This article presents some good reminders.
A great list of low-cost things you can do to revitalize your home, car, and personal property for little or no cost. I am always amazed at how some simple, low-cost efforts can have a big impact on our surroundings.
Staying out of the stores and not shopping can really save some money!
Some really good arguments for why saving money is at least as significant and making it.
My article, When What you Really Want Costs More: Is the Price Ratio Worth It?, was mentioned in a couple of places:
And another article, 5 Ways the Internet Saves Me Money was also called out in a couple of places:
Thanks to Sound Money Matters for hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance and to My Two Dollars for hosting the Festival of Frugality this week.
