Money Pointers For The Festive Season

With Diwali around the corner, the festive season will soon be upon us. And while it’s a time of joy and celebration, many of us, unfortunately, end up with our personal finances overstretched during this time of the year. Here are three ways in which you can keep your money stress levels low.

Don’t try to outdo your neighbours or friends

Your neighbour just bought a flashy new car or completed a large-scale renovation of their house to mark the occasion of Diwali, and this has you turning green! In fact, in today’s day and age, social media is full of people flaunting their latest acquisitions – so this phenomenon isn’t just restricted to your neighbours anymore. Not one to be left behind, you go out and blow up some dough yourself. Sounds familiar? Remember this – trying to keep up with the Joneses is going to drive you to the ground eventually. Learn to be content with what you have while striving for more, of course.

Don’t buy things you don’t need

Warren Buffett advised us on the perils of buying things we don’t need – the resulting outcome being ‘having to sell things that you need. With all those rock-bottom discounts and online sales happening, this one’s a toughie to guard yourself against. Make sure you don’t stack up on things that have little long-term worth in your life ‘just because they were available cheap. Exercise your willpower and use your discretion to buy only things that you’d have liked to own even if they weren’t under-priced.

Don’t over-leverage

With the advent of FinTech enabled credit platforms, availing loans has never been quite as easy. Goaded by attractive advertisements and the promise of instant gratification, many people end up overleveraging themselves during the festive season, only to pay the price for many years. However, you’d be wise to avoid the loan trap altogether, preferring instead to spend what you have. Short on cash? No worries. You’ll survive just fine for a year without making expensive purchases.

Rethink gifting

Think before you spend thousands on chocolate boxes and dining sets for people just for the sake of keeping up impressions! They will likely be shunted away into some dank corner of their houses, or be ‘re-gifted’ ahead in any case. Instead, re-think your gifting plan – perhaps a simple note, with a customised handwritten message, will end up being appreciated a lot more than cliched gift sets. In fact, the last few years have seen many people moving away from the ‘gifting culture’ altogether, preferring to not accept or give any gifts but to just send across their best wishes instead.

Make use of windfalls

If at all you come across windfall gains during Diwali, use it wisely. There are plenty of smart things you can do with the money. Use it to pay off a loan that’s been torturing you for some time, or to secure your family future by taking up a term or health insurance plan. At the very least, invest the money into a short-term debt mutual fund for a more significant goal – say, a trip abroad. Whatever you do, don’t fritter it away on things that are unnecessary and not value-creating – you’re bound to suffer from the famed ‘buyers regret’ syndrome later.