Note: This is a blog post I wrote for my client SelectQuote and that published on Dec. 15, 2017

Six Holiday Tips to Improve Your Finances in 2018

HOLIDAYS  DECEMBER 14, 2017

0

If holiday shopping and social obligations have you seeing nothing but dollar signs, you can easily turn worry about your shrinking bank account and growing credit card debt into positive steps for the coming year. 

Take a little time now – in this busy month of December – to make small changes that will put you in better financial shape for 2018. Here are six tips to help you get started:

Look Back at Your Spending 

If you mostly use credit and debit cards to cover your costs, it’s easy to look back through your statements for 2017 to figure out where your money went. It may be impossible to change your fixed costs – housing, utilities, car payments – but what about the decisions you make from week to week about what to buy and where to spend? 

You may find your lifestyle contributes to major cash outlays for restaurant meals, entertainment and lots of little luxuries you really can live without. Take it to the next level and set a monthly budget for discretionary spending for the coming year, or just be mindful about how many purchases you make with little or no thought and decide to cut back. You may find your bottom line growing steadily if you reduce the number of nice-to-have, but not essential purchases. 

Pay Cash for Holiday Purchases

For whatever items remain on your shopping and entertaining lists, set a dollar amount for each person or event. Then get cash, watch for sales, hit local and chain stores and spend only what you’ve budgeted, using all of your willpower to resist impulse purchases. You’ll appreciate your credit card statement in January won’t leave you speechless. Save your receipts for any exchanges and make notes about which retailers offered mid- or late-December deals in order to plan ahead for next year’s holiday shopping. 

Shop for Upcoming Weddings 

With save-the-date announcements going out as much as a year in advance, you may already know which friends and family members plan to tie the knot next spring, summer or fall. You know you can’t count on sales when the time comes, but sales abound in December, the make-or-break season for retailers. Add appropriate wedding and shower gifts to your holiday shopping list and go for those great deals. Keep receipts in case the recipients needs to make an exchange. 

Start Planning Your Summer Vacation

Nothing helps you focus your finances more than having a fun goal in mind. If you know you’ll need at least X number of dollars for that family vacation or dream trip you have in mind, start now to cut back on other expenses to afford that trip without going into debt. It’s easy enough to plan in advance with online bookings. If the timeframe you have in mind doesn’t work out, most reservations are easy to change without penalty. Meanwhile, you’ll have that little nest egg to spend in a fun vacation spot. 

Stock Up on Everyday Items 

Holiday sales aren’t just for buying gifts, of course. Plenty of discount stores, grocers and drugstores offer deals in December on items like paper goods, cleaning supplies, basic cosmetics and other products you use every day. Load up your cabinets and closets now with those basics on sale and you’ll find your weekly expenditures shrink in the coming year. 

Open a Holiday Savings Account

It won’t help for this year’s spending, but start right now to put away money for the 2018 season with a dedicated account at your bank or credit union. You really won’t miss a modest contribution made from each paycheck and when it comes time to tap into that account a year from now, you’ll be glad you made a new savings habit. Some savings institutions even offer incentives this month for planning ahead. 

Challenge yourself to try a few of these tips and then come up with your own creative ways to save a little more cash each month in the year ahead.  

###

Related Articles:

Five Ways to Avoid Holiday Over Spending

Six Steps to a Financially Happier Holiday Season

Startland News: Entrepreneurship is booming in Kansas City

It’s no secret that Kansas City is gaining traction as a hotbed for technology startups and entrepreneurship in general. Startland News, a digital publication, is not only giving a voice to startup businesses, but offers a platform for individuals, corporations and organizations that support entrepreneurship to be heard and to spread the news about innovation in the metro area.

Bobby Burch, Editor-in-Chief of Startland News, itself a startup, shared insights about the impressive growth of entrepreneurial business in Kansas City, particularly in the hardware and software tech sector, at a lunch meeting with Kansas City IABC’s Independent Communicators group.

Bobby is first and foremost a journalist. He learned the ins and outs of the trade at the Ottawa Herald and the Kansas City Business Journal, where he honed his reporting and electronic publishing skills. But he soon yearned to try something new and saw a niche opportunity that the mainstream media was not sufficiently covering.

In May 2015, he launched Startland News as a website and digital publication. Initially the goal was to grow profits by the traditional method of selling advertising space on the site, but that model has evolved to that of a nonprofit, under the umbrella of the KC Startup Foundation. Funding comes from various sources; major contributors include the Kauffman Foundation and the Polsinelli law firm, Bobby says.

Although based in Kansas City with a focus on the KC startup community, about 50 percent of subscribers are based elsewhere, with large pockets in St. Louis, Chicago, and of course, Silicon Valley, Bobby says. Startland News pushes out three new editions weekly and subscriptions are free.

Startland News was honored in April with a 2017 Cornerstone Award, presented by the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City. The annual awards, which just celebrated their 30th year, recognize people, projects, businesses, programs, initiatives and events that drive economic development and growth in Kansas City.

“We aim to be a resource and advocate for innovators and early-stage businesses, but also serve as storytellers for the larger network of stakeholders in the entrepreneurial community,” Bobby explains.

Not just a cheerleader for startups, Startland News also covers failed businesses, mainly from the standpoint of lessons learned from the experience, he adds. “Sometimes it’s just cathartic to be able to talk about a business that started out as a great idea, but that didn’t succeed for various reasons,” he said.

For a free subscription, visit Startlandnews.com. For more on the impressive growth of entrepreneurship in Kansas City, see Bobby’s recent article, Kauffman report: KC startup momentum builds for 3 years running, improves national rank.

KC Studio offers discerning coverage of visual and performing arts

When the mainstream media decides to curtail coverage in a particular area, a golden opportunity may arise for a niche publisher to step in and dominate the market. That’s exactly what happened when the Kansas City Star mostly dismantled its arts and entertainment department a few years back in light of declining advertising and circulation revenues and the need to reduce staff.

KC Studio, a bimonthly specialty magazine that covers the arts, saw a chance to expand its coverage to include more serious, in-depth reporting and critique of the vibrant and growing KC arts scene, said Alice Thorson, Editor of KC Studio. Alice talked about the evolution of the publication, founded in 2008, and the ever-increasing depth and breadth of arts offerings in the metro area at a meeting of the Kansas City Freelance Exchange.

Breaking with tradition

Alice came on board KC Studio in 2015 with the charge of continuing to expand the editorial mission of the magazine to cover “what artists are saying and how it relates to the world, instead of the traditional focus on arts organizations and what they want to tell the public,” she explained. The result was an expanded publication with often lengthy and always meaty articles by experienced arts and entertainment writers about the movers and shakers who are constantly raising the bar in Kansas City.

At the same time, the magazine was divided into two distinct parts – at the front of the magazine the Editorial section, where Alice and the editorial team decides what is worthy of coverage; and paid Advertorial at the back of the magazine, where arts organizations can deliver their message to the public and can control the content because they pay for space in the magazine.

Performing, visual, cinematic and literary arts

The many arts organizations in the community accepted the change with good spirits, Alice said. “We told them we will cover them when they do projects that are worthy of coverage,” she said, and of course, many projects are deemed worthy. The transition from a focus on organizations to a focus on artists has proceeded very smoothly, she added. Editorial coverage encompasses the performing, visual, cinematic and literary arts.

At the same time the magazine shifted its focus away from coverage of organizations, it expanded its online presence, with frequent articles about current exhibitions and performances, giving the public up-to-date and relevant information that helps them decide what events to attend.

Online reviews by arts critics of current and past productions and exhibitions are easy to search and access, providing excellent resources for the discerning public. “Weekend Picks” by Alice help draw attention to worthy events and performances that might otherwise be overlooked. An active presence for KC Studio on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter provide yet more platforms for arts coverage, sharing and public comments.

As a controlled circulation magazine, a print subscription is free. Sign up at KCStudio.org.