Budget for a very merry Christmas

Budget for a very merry Christmas

by | Nov 20, 2017 | Budget, Christmas, Finances, Wealth

A bit of planning and forethought may help take the financial stress out of Christmas.

Christmas for many families, is a happy time of year that brings people together, but it can also be expensive!
With a bit of early planning you may control your festive season spending.

Here are some tips to help avoid a New Year financial blowout.  You don’t want a heart attack when you get that statement in January!

Draw up a budget

You know it makes sense, but it can seem a bit Scrooge-like. Start with the total amount you want to spend. Divide this into gifts, catering, entertainment and travel and list the items you need to purchase in each. Then put a spending cap on each category.

Sort your gift-giving

Draw up a gift list and allocate how much you want to spend on each person. If money is tight, consider options such as vouchers for home-cooked meals or gardening as alternatives.

It may help for big groups of relatives or friends to agree in advance upon a spending cap per gift. Another option is to do a Secret Santa by choosing each other’s names randomly from a hat. Each person then buys the person they picked a gift, instead of buying for everyone.

Open a Christmas account

Set up a special bank account early in the year and use a regular auto payment option. The sooner you start saving, the more you will have.

You’ll also be able to make the most of all those annual specials from Boxing Day forward!

Make a shopping list

Wandering through the shops without knowing what to buy may cause you to overspend. Do your research first, then set out with your shopping list in hand and stick to it.

Be prepared to bargain as smartphones make it easy to compare prices. Avoid last-minute shopping as this may result in rushed and expensive decisions. Even better, pick up bargains in the sales earlier in the year and put them aside.

Above all, keep your head and stick to what you can afford.

Travel smarter

The holiday season is one of the most expensive times to travel, so it may be worth considering house swapping, camping or having a staycation. If you are travelling, a budget will help you stay
on track.

I’d love to hear some of the ways you stay on track each Xmas without blowing your budget!  Let us know in the comments and share your top tips!

Key-person insurance: Protection for your business

by | Nov 13, 2017 | Business, Finances, Insurance & Protection

How would your organisation cope if something happened to a key person?

Unexpected events can play havoc not only with people’s lives but also with businesses.
However, business owners are often so busy they don’t stop to consider the true cost of the loss of a key employee, business partner or even themselves.
The knock-on effects may include disruption to other staff, missed opportunities, delays or penalties for late delivery of projects, lost revenue, increased expenses, significant costs to find and train a suitable replacement, loan repayment and even loss of the business.

What is key-person insurance?

Key-person insurance protects a business’s financial position against the significant impact of a traumatic event such as the death or disablement of a key person.
A key person may be an employee, owner or an individual whose contribution to the business is significant.
This cover is not a specific kind of insurance but the application of life insurance to protect against key-person risk. It can be used with buy/sell life insurance (also known as business succession insurance) which covers the change of ownership if an owner dies or becomes incapacitated.

The benefits

Often a cash injection to an affected business may keep a bad situation from becoming worse or even catastrophic. The insurance proceeds may be used to:

  • minimise or eliminate the potential loss of revenue, sales or profits
  • help cover the often significant costs of finding or training a replacement
  • service or repay any debts that are called in
  • cover the impact of a writedown in the goodwill of the business
  • provide needed liquidity
  • help keep staff and maintain essential supplier relationships.

Are there alternatives?

A business may have other strategies to help manage their risks, including asset sales, promoting staff or reallocating workloads even temporarily, using profits, borrowing more, or drawing down existing loan facilities.
However, insurance is the only practical alternative where a business doesn’t have the capacity to cover its risks.

https://learn.thryv.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002070591-Sales-Payments-Getting-Started