Dana Edwards, MBA, Peak to Peak. The holiday season is upon us! For myself, this time of year brings up an array of emotions. I love Thanksgiving, the food and festivities, seeing friends and family whom I haven’t seen in many months, and the family traditions which have always been part of the season. From a financial perspective, however, it can be challenging. The holiday season often creates a Fear-of-Missing-Out aka FOMO, as we are collectively bombarded by advertisements of the latest gadgets, concerns for buying the perfect gift, and maybe even treating ourselves to something we’ve been wanting for a while.

Striving to be financial responsible during the holiday season is a fantastic opportunity to rise to the occasion of sound financial decision-making.  Opportunities for learning and practicing good habits abound! Consider the following: 

If you see something you like, either for yourself or for another, but it wasn’t on the planned shopping for the day, take a picture! Then, walk away. Get lunch. Go home and sleep on it. If you wake up the next day and you are still thinking about that item, look at the picture, and decide then if you want to go back and purchase it. 

Develop your shopping strategy. Every single retail outlet is designed to make you buy something. All their marketing, store set up, and staff are working towards you making a purchase. So, like any good negotiator, go in with your information primed. Know exactly what you are planning to purchase, have looked at it online first to check the price (maybe have found a coupon in the process!), get the item(s), and move on. Don’t let yourself get ensnared by the holiday marketing extravaganza. Be strong!

Make it a family project to simplify gifting. Together, create a gifting criterion. It could be something like this, for each person, we will buy them an item in each of the following categories: something to wear, something to read, something to play with.  

Despite the media-marketing machine that makes the holidays all about spending money, there are things we can all do to give ourselves some space and distance from that. We don’t have to abandon it entirely, but perhaps the greatest gift we can each give to ourselves during this time of year is to simply pause. Take a few moments to breathe in the fresh, pristine mountain air. Enjoy the snow and the sunshine. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while. Put on your favorite holiday playlist and cook a nice hearty stew. Get the kids involved and send holiday cards to a few folks. Create some good cheer! It costs next to nothing and everyone benefits.

Happy Holidays to you my fellow Mountain Folk!

Dana Edwards is an advisor with Cornerstone Investment Advisors, LLC and can be reached at 303-545-5400 or by email at dana@cstoneinvest.com.

(Originally published in the November 28, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)