Christmas is near, have you prepared your finances!

We don’t want to alarm you, but Christmas is coming next month. OK, we’ve only just got Hallowe’en out of the way, and the scariest part of that particular holiday is the speed that some businesses packed all their spooky stuff away and immediately rolled out the Christmas decorations.

So, will you be celebrating Christmas? Of course, you will. Even if you’re not the religious type, people tend to get dragged into the whole holiday spirit, and what’s Christmas these days except a huge round of parties, gifts, drinks and more gifts? And you might even want to get away from it all with that luxurious December getaway that you promised yourself.

So, how are you going to pay for it? When you add it all up, you could end up splashing out at least $1,000 on Christmas, and that’s money you should have budgeted beforehand.

The smart people have been budgeting their Christmas months ago. We know of people who bought and wrapped their presents months ago. We also know people who started budgeting Christmas 2013 as soon as Christmas 2012 was over. In fact, my wife is out there in January, buying greetings cards and wrapping paper in the sales, then promptly forgetting about it at the other end of the year.

But if you’re really smart, Christmas is the time to flex the power of your premium credit card. We’re not advocating a buy-now-pay-later festive season that will take you the whole year to pay off. That’s one lesson we preach over and over – only spend as much on your card as you can afford to pay off in the same month.

What we are suggesting you do is use your card to buy gifts and your everyday Christmas needs, pay off your balance immediately and reap the rewards that your credit card offers in the way of points, be it flights, discounts, or nights out. You’ll find that even if Santa gives you a miss this year, you’ve already given yourself a pretty fine present in the way of your credit card rewards.

Article by Jason Taylor – [email protected]