Ask Chuck: What Should I Do With My Christmas Bonus?
Dear Chuck, I expect a decent year-end bonus and am trying to decide how best to use it. I want to grow our investment portfolio while my wife thinks we should pay off all debt. What would you recommend? Blessed with a Bonus Dear Blessed with a Bonus, Congratulations! This is a nice problem […]
Ask Chuck: What Can I Do About Christmas Debt?
Dear Chuck, I have credit card debt from last Christmas and don’t see any way out of adding to it this year. I am depressed about it but can’t bring myself to deny my children a great Christmas. What can I do? Christmas Stress Dear Christmas Stress, I have been in your shoes and […]
Post-Christmas Sales Shopping Tips
Christmas is over, the presents have been unwrapped (and maybe exchanged), and the leftovers are being polished off as we all prepare for life to kick back into high gear come January 1. The pre-Christmas shopping frenzies have ended, but the Christmas shopping is far from over – because now the post-Christmas shopping commences! Hundreds […]
How to Keep Your Money, Time, and Heart Peaceful During the Holidays
My pastor, Ronnie Batchelor, describes this as the time of year when “…we all experience the familiar unnerving sense that we’re approaching the brink – something akin to the clack-clack-clack-clack ascent of the rollercoaster when couples instinctively grasp each other’s hands and exchange nervous looks that communicate, ‘Here we go!’ We just hang on and […]
Ask Chuck: Year-End Giving: The Good, The Generous, and The Scammers
Dear Chuck, During this time of year, I want to be more generous. I’ll receive a Christmas bonus from my company and I feel the Holy Spirit prompting me to give it away. The problem is, I don’t know to who. There are so many charities, ministries, and organizations fundraising, and I have a hard […]
6 Ways to Beat the Christmas Blues
For some, Christmas is ”the most wonderful time of the year”, “the hap-happiest season of all!” But for others, it is, to borrow a line from Shakespeare, the “winter of our discontent”. Christmas for many is a season of sorrow, not of joy. There’s the empty seat of a loved one who’s passed away, the […]
Ask Chuck: Avoiding the Christmas Spending Trap
Dear Chuck, The commercialization of Christmas feels like a big financial trap! My husband and I want to show love to our kids and family but the pressure to spend and borrow just to put a bunch of packages under the tree seems ridiculous. Any advice for stressed out parents like us? Bah Humbug! […]
4 Ways to Cultivate a Grateful Attitude in Your Kids During Christmas
One of the earliest battles parents with young children have is the battle of ownership. The cries of “me, my, mine” may be carrying through your house on a daily basis now, especially as the Christmas season draws near. If not, step into a room of toddlers and it won’t take long before you hear […]
Merging Christmas Traditions in Marriage
What Christmas traditions do you hold dear? Maybe you always give a certain gift, bake a special dessert, or buy a specific kind of tree. For many of us, these rituals are what make the Christmas season special, and it’s hard to feel festive without them. But for many of us, these Christmas traditions were […]
3 Steps When You and Your Spouse Don’t Agree on Christmas Spending
Around this time last year, I remember receiving several questions from spouses about their “holiday budgets”. One woman in particular explained that her husband was more of an “Ebenezer Scrooge” when it came to Christmas spending, while she loved the experience of shopping for others and giving big gifts. I would have to imagine that […]