Personal Finance Coach Issues Firm Warning About Christmas Shopping This Year
Holiday shopping can be hard to afford, but one finance guru has a simple solution to the problem.
Nicoleta Ionescu / Shutterstock Christmas shopping is always cause for a bit of a cringe for most of us, but with the current state of the economy, this year's shopping season can seem downright daunting.
If you're wondering how you're going to afford this year's festivities, one online finance guru has a very simple solution — but not everyone's going to like it.
The personal finance coach is issuing a Christmas debt warning about holiday shopping this year.
Inflation has made the prospect of showering our loved ones with gifts this year downright terrifying for most of us, with 40% of respondents to a recent survey saying they'll be cutting back. But it seems unlikely those cutbacks will actually materialize if last year is any predictor.
Last Christmas brought an eight-year high in holiday debt despite last year's almost equally punishing economy, and many consumers say this year they plan to go so far as to use high-risk loans for holiday gifts if need be.
TikToker Wes (@honestpersonalfinance on the app) has just one thing to say about that: Don't you dare.
The finance coach is urging people to simply refuse to participate in holiday gift-giving if they're worried about affording it.
"You don't need to go shopping. You don't need to buy anything," Wes said emphatically in his video. "This time of year ruins more people's finances than any other time of the year. Don't you dare become part of that statistic!"
He then went on to say some difficult — but nevertheless unassailable — truths. "None of the kids remember who got them what gifts last year," he said — which if you've ever bought a child a gift you know is inarguably true.
He went on to say, "Everything you will ever buy, someone will eventually turn into garbage just like your money."
That's a harsh way to think of Christmas gifts, but the data bears it out: A 2022 survey found that more than half of people get at least one Christmas gift they don't want, which adds up to more than $8.2 billion in holiday spending. That is absurd.
Wes says participating in Christmas shopping is a choice to ruin your finances — a bold claim that the data actually bears out.
The finance guru went on to couch holiday shopping as a matter of personal responsibility. "You're complaining about the cost of living and inflation ruining your finances, yet you have the audacity to think that you need to go shopping?" he scolded.
Again, harsh. But is he wrong? Prices on basically every category of holiday gift are up since last year and people are so strapped that a recent Morning Consult poll found that more than a third of Americans — including 39% of those making $100,000 a year or more — are planning to use "Buy Now, Pay Later" loans to buy Christmas gifts.
These are loans from companies and apps like Klarna and AfterPay that come with predatory fees and exorbitant interest rates worse than even many credit cards, especially if it turns out you can't pay the bill down the road.
All things considered, it's hard to believe so many people, including high earners, are considering taking on that much risk for holiday gifts most people forget about, don't want, take back, or throw away.
Consider making Christmas about togetherness, instead.
"Your materialism is making you broke," Wes said, "corporate America is trying to trick you into wasting your money and you are taking their bait hook, line and sinker." His advice for even high earners was to take the money they would spend on gifts and invest it instead.
Even if that's out of reach, he says "the holidays do not have to be about wasting money." Aside from the number of people who hate the gifts they get in the first place, research has conclusively shown that people value experiences over things anyway.
That tendency is beginning to impact the holidays too:
More than half of all Americans say Christmas gift-giving stresses them out — and it's even worse for those with kids.
As someone who comes from a family that put a $50 limit and a "kids only" rule on Christmas presents more than a decade ago, I can tell you from experience: The sigh of relief you will heave when you don't have to grit your financial teeth for the next three months is better than any dreck your family is going to shove under the tree next month.
As Wese put it in his video, "no one in your family is entitled to any of your money." Be together instead. Eat cookies, watch movies, sing songs, throw snowballs. The objects beneath the tree will be forgotten practically the moment they're opened. The other stuff lasts forever.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.