Do you hate the thought of working past 55 or 60? Do you hate not being able to live the life you deserve today? Do you hate not knowing what your financial future looks like? It's time to stop doing what you hate, here's your host, Mr. Harold Green.
(00:20): Oh, hello. Hi everybody. This is Harold Green and it is time to stop doing what you hate. How is everyone doing? Hopefully you are having a fantastic day. It's a Tuesday for me. And I normally do not record on Tuesdays, but there's just something that's just been bothering me a little bit. And just want to go ahead and get it off my chest. And it's today's show titled the holidays and money and the holidays are a, I love the holidays. I love it when things slow down for me a little bit, and I get a chance to reflect on the year. And I get to look forward to the goals that I'm setting. I get to enjoy spending time with my family. It's just an overall good time. And so I hope it is. But for a lot of people this year, a lot of things have happened and they've gone through a lot of stuff.
(01:11): And, but on the other hand, there are some people out there who have had phenomenal success in this 20, 20 years. So it's a tale of two halves and you know, if you're out there and you're going through something and you've had a really tough year, I want you to keep your head up. And I want you to know that, you know, you're in my thoughts and my prayers, mostly my prayers. And I just want to encourage you to keep your head up and to, and to keep charging forward and to set goals and to continue to dream plan and, and accomplish, because I tell you things will turn around. So I want to talk to you about how the holidays and money, because for some people, it is an extremely stressful time. They may not have the money that they want to spend for gifts for their kids.
(01:58): And there's the pressure of giving gifts and getting together and all of the expenses that go into it. And so it's definitely something that we're going to have to make sure that we have a game plan and to make sure that we're having a strategy in order to, to overcome all of the stressful things that you're going to be facing. So let's get into it. You guys ready? One, two, three, let's get it. I'm going to hit you with a bunch of stats real quick, just to kind of lay the groundwork here in regards to the spending that goes on around the holidays. And as you guys know, black Friday has its name because that's when most businesses go in the black, especially retail for the year, because of all of the holiday shopping, we are looking at people, spending an estimate of $1 trillion this holiday season.
(02:49): And what it breaks down to is about $942 per person for gifts. Now that's a lot of money, especially if you have a big family and a, you guys are used to spending like that and giving big gifts, 37% say they're going to spend about a thousand dollars this year on average when I just asked somebody this year, but it just like say on average, 21% looking at spending about 500 to $999, 27%, they're looking at spending about a hundred to $500 and then 3% are going to keep it less than 100. Okay. And then, so we're looking at about a trillion dollars out there. And one of the things, things I thought about and just kind of stretching out here a little bit in my imagination, which sometimes serves me well, and sometimes it does not, but we're looking at the, the deficit that,uor the stimulus package that,that Congress is proposing.
(03:40): And the Senate they're proposing bill, you know, it's $2 trillion or more. And then one side has a, a bill for less than a, than 2 trillion in dollars. But a trillion dollars is a trillion dollars. They've already spent over $3 trillion earlier, you know, stimulating the economy and so on and so forth. And that is a lot of money. And I do understand the situation. And I thought for a second here, what if, what if there is a general fund that we've could contribute to, to help ease some of the pressure and some of the stress that a lot of the families are going to like neighbor helping neighbor. But when I look at it, the government, they, you know, and, and, and Congress, and, and these bills, there is so much waste aside then that the people who need the help necessarily don't get the money.
(04:27): So for us, it'd be kind of like putting a putting them money into a bag with holes in it. But if there is the way that we could, we could help people. I would definitely be all for that, but I'm just not for all the waste and all the frivolous spending that that goes on. Now, going back to the numbers again, I found another article that said roughly 19% of people plan with kids under 18 plan on spending about a thousand dollars in gifts, just for them kids. Now that's just gifts. Now we're not talking about all the other things going out to eat in all of that. And about a fifth of those people say they plan on taking on about $4,000 a debt. So the first group, 19% say they plan on taking on thousand dollars. And then one fifth of those folks, roughly 20% say they plan on taking on $4,000 worth of debt in order to give their kids a good Christmas.
(05:18): And then the one in five of all of those folks say that there is no limit when it comes to how much they are going to spend in order to give their kids the kind of Christmas, extremely happy Christmas, a joyful Christmas one that they'll never forget, you know, things like that. So I'm looking at this. And, and, mne of the things that occurred to me is I see a lot of people, what they do is they end up taking on a lot of debt for Christmas and the holidays, because they know they're going to get a massive refund the following year. Why are they going to get a massive refund, the following year aspect? Because they're having too much money taken out of their paychecks, every single, and they can't discipline them themselves to use their money in a wise manner. And so it's just kinda like, you know, a cat chasing its tail.
(06:04): So you go into a lot of debt, you get that refund, you pay off all the credit cards, then the rest of the year, you're probably still going into debt. And so if, hopefully, if you're listening to me, you are not in that vicious cycle of like trying to dig yourself out of a hole every single year. But again, Christmas and Thanksgiving, these are, these are some very important times for us and we'll be able to enjoy it. And so I wanted just to get you guys just some simple steps that will help make the holidays a lot easier, and hopefully it will take the pressure off of of you in regards to what you plan to do. So before I go and into those steps, I want to tell you folks my favorite yeah. Time of the year. And that is Thanksgiving.
(06:54): I, I value Thanksgiving more than Christmas, because for me, Christmas is every day. I do not say a lot of money and then spend a lot of money at once on time. I have gotten to the point where if I see something I need, I don't need to put it on a Christmas list. I don't need to put it on a wishlist if I've done a good job with my planning on my budgeting. When I see something I need not necessarily things that I want per se, but things that I need, I just, I just go in. Yeah. You know, yes, I do have a want list, but yeah. Have responsibilities that I want to take care of first, before I go and start tackling my want list. And as a matter of fact, my want list is yeah. As big as all as at it's not that big at all.
(07:44): And my wife said to me, she said, Hey, Christmas is coming up. What do you want? And I said, honestly, honey, I don't, I just want peace. You know, I just want peace. I want, I want things slow down a little bit because they've been going a thousand miles an hour. And so I just need a break. If I can get a break for Christmas, that's, that's all I want. You know? And so that's kind of where, and my head is, but in years past, we've had kids when they were small and we didn't always have the resources to just simply buy our kids, whatever they wanted. And so we would budget and we would find things that we felt our kids would enjoy things that were beneficial to them. And we bought those things we didn't spend. And more than a hundred or $200 on Christmas that I can remember.
(08:28): I don't ever remember spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a Christmas gifts. We did not raise our kids that way to value things versus understanding the principle behind what they were given. And so we would buy them things. We would video tape the Christmas. And so we would split the money up and buy them a lot of small things. And so we would just like pile tons of small things under the Christmas tree. So, so it was, it was kind of like, my kids felt like, Oh my God, I got this, I got this. I got like, how many gifts do I have? They're like, I got like 10 gifts. And so, and it will all be things that we're not, you know, we're not a lot of money. And they were extremely happy with that. They were extremely satisfied with that. And as the kids got older, we began to give them less and less and less gifts.
(09:16): And we began to give them like monetary gifts instead. So every year the physical gift went down. However, as they got older, the monetary gifts went up because we felt that, you know, give them the funds and then they can buy whatever they want versus us getting them some nebulous thing just to say, Oh, we gave you a gift or two. And so that's what we've done. And for me, that's rule number one, keeping it simple, keeping it really, really simple. Like I said, Christmas comes every day for me. I don't wait until December to 25th or whatever to, you know, to, to surprise myself with something or my wife. And so we've kind of gotten away from that a long time ago and it has served us tremendously, tremendously well. And so keeping it simple is rule number one, figure out your budget, figure out, you know, what you want to do with your family and in terms of gifts and dollar amounts, and then, and just, and just keep it simple.
(10:15): Okay. Number two, be grateful. You know, during the holidays looking back on my year, I'm just so thankful that I made it to that point, especially with all the things that we go through on a day in and day out basis. I'm just happy that I made it. I'm, I'm happy that, you know, my family is with me. My family is doing well and everyone's doing okay. And, you know, I, I, you know, I call all my siblings. I got, I got, you know, 10 or 11, half brothers and sisters. And so I try to call every single one of them, text them or whatever it is just to say, you know how you're doing. I want to try to do that throughout the year, but just time, time just gets away from me. And so I'm not, I'm not, I'm not able to do that, but it's, it's being grateful.
(10:57): And so that's one of the lessons that I taught my kids early on from an early age, is just to be grateful for everything that you have and all the progress that you made the best is still yet to come, but we gotta look back and be thankful for where we are. And so what my wife and I would do is we'd load up the kids on Christmas day, after all the gifts and things like that, or open up sometimes it's not on Christmas day, it could be around Thanksgiving, but we, we try to do this. If they're home that year, load up the car. And we drive by every place that we've stayed here in Hawaii, just looking at the progression of like where, where God has allowed us to, to prosper from the first place was,military housing out at Barbara's point Hawaiian.
(11:42): So, you know, it was brick, concrete housing and like world war II stuff. And so that was our first place. And then as it became all raggedy and broken down, the kids would be like, God, dad, why are you? You're taking us out here to one year where they had just demolished all of it, because it was old, old, it wasn't there anymore. And so I told them, I said, you know, God has been extremely good to us and we, and we're working really hard, but we can't forget all of our blessings. We can't forget everything that we've gone through. We can't forget our progress and looking at back on things and just sharing all those stories. So we would spend that day just talking about all the things that we've kind of gone through. And then we take them out to lunch or dinner or whatever it is, and just kind of celebrate that day and,uand just really teaching them to be thankful and to be grateful because it's not about what you got on the court, Christmas tree, it's about what's in your heart.
(12:35): Okay. And that's the lesson that we taught them. The last point that I want to make. And this one is not really about money per se, but it's about being in the moment. Things are super busy for us all the time. And during the holidays, I want you just to think a little bit and just kind of slow things down a little bit. And just, and just the, in the moment, you know, give your, your family members that extra hug or an extra kiss on the cheek, because you don't know if you're going to be here tomorrow or not. And you don't know if they're going to be here tomorrow and us. So you got to value, you got to value that time, right. With them. And so for us, I would say, you know, we don't give our kids a lot of money for, you know, for their Christmas gifts or whatnot or their new year's gift.
(13:22): But we do set a budget of about a couple of thousand dollars every, every year. And part of that money is like for their gifts, but the rest of it is eating out. And so, and you know, when the kids are not on their phone or they're not on the computer doing stuff, it's like, Hey, yo, like, like w w where do you guys want to go eat? Oh yeah, dad at school eat this, or, yeah, dad, let's go get ice cream or, yeah, dad, let's go. And so we, we want to spend that money, spending time with them, because again, we don't know how long we're going to be here. And we want to, we want to use this time to still values in our kids that are going to serve them well. And if everybody's off doing their own thing, right? Yes.
(13:59): The holiday, sometimes it does drag on. Sometimes the days do get boring for some of us, but, you know, that's the time want to take and just instill good solid values. And so our kids, you know, take them back down memory road, keeping it simple with them and just being grateful. And I tell you that we'll do lows and terms of reducing the level of stress that we have. And again, it's not all about the gifts and it's not all about the monetary. It's just looking at the simple things in life. And so if you need help developing your game, plan your strategy as to how you're going to get through the holidays, give me a holler, (808) 521-4401. I'll be glad to get you on the calendar and just kind of talk to you guys through it and see if there's anything I can do to, to help you stop doing what you hate.
(14:45): You know, every year people get tired of spending money on Christmas and they hate it, but they feel the pressure of family because they don't want to look like the odd man out, but that is not necessary. Also, we're looking at, you know, 20, 21. And a lot of times we reset our financial plan. We reset our game plan. And if you haven't created your plan or you want to reset your game plan, or you want to re re analyze your plan. I mean, look me up, go to my website, retire now, retire wild.com. Download that rapid retire brochure, take a look at it, fill out the game-changer form for me, and then send that over to me. And I'll, I'll get on, you know, I'll get you on the calendar and we'll talk because I guarantee you 2021 is going to be a very, very, very important year.
(15:30): We thought 2020 was an important year. I tell you, 2021 is going to be a very important year for your financial plan. For some of you, you're going to retire in the next five years. And so it's going to be very important, how you strategically set yourself up in order to be in a position to take advantage of retiring in the next five years. Some of you, you're looking at five to 10 years. You want to be in position for that. Some of us have no idea when we're going to be forced into retirement or laid off or whatever it might be. So we want to be in For that.
(16:05): All right. Well, I'm good. I'm going to go ahead and say it. The election's not even here yet, but happy holidays to you, or when this thing airs, the election probably would be unpassed. So again, happy holidays to you. And I'm looking forward to a great holiday myself. And until next time, one, two, three,
(16:28): This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
