Dealing with post-holiday financial blues

The gifts have been given, eggnog drunk, carols sung and tree taken out or disassembled. The guests, including the out-of-town relatives, have gone home.

Welcome to January.

It's a difficult month for many as the credit card hangover causes a raging financial headache. If that is where you find yourself, here is a five-part plan to dig yourself out and avoid it next year:

Pay it off. Make an honest and complete list of all your credit card balances and interest rates and start applying every penny you can to paying off the amounts you owe. If you need to make some sacrifices, go ahead and do that now. Otherwise, you could be suffering through the post-holiday blues for many months.

Make a plan. Set up a household budget and discuss your financial priorities with your family. Having a plan can help protect you from financial amnesia, which refers to forgetting and repeating the same financial mistakes you've made in the past. Stick to your plan, and you should be better prepared for the next holiday season.

Start saving. Open a savings account especially for the holidays at your bank or credit union and set up an automatic deposit that will transfer a portion of each of your paychecks into that account every month. If you set aside 10 percent of the total you spent last year with each transfer, you should be set for holiday spending in December.

Shop smart. Rather than purchasing all your holiday gifts and accessories in a mad rush at the end of the year, buy some holiday leftovers at bargain prices now and store them. Look for on-sale gift items you can wrap and hide in advance. If you put aside one gift each month, you'll be better protected from the perils of last-minute shopping in December.

Find a job. Mark your calendar for a date in October when you'll start a second temporary job for the holiday season. Since you've planned, you will have time to earn extra money you can use to catch up on unpaid bills, sock away additional savings, make repairs to your home or car and maybe even spend a little more for the holidays, too.

A loanDepot licensed loan officer can help with these and any other lending questions. Call (888) 983-3240 to speak with one today.

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