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And it's available in all 50 states and around the world. Learn more at chministries.org slash faith buy. Christmas is still a few weeks away. There's time to stop, take a deep breath, and get it right this year.
Hi, I'm Rob West. This is just about the time that things get a little frenzied during the holiday season, and we lose track of what's really important. Crystal Payne is here today to help set us straight. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's always a pleasure to have Crystal Payne back on the program. She's the creator of the amazing website moneysavingmom.com, which you should only check out if you like saving money and simplifying your life. Crystal, great to have you back with us. It's such an honor to be here.
Thank you for having me back. Well, we're delighted, and we're going to get into a lot of the practical steps folks can take to keep costs down at Christmas. But first, tell us maybe a few of the things your family does to savor the meaning of Christmas. Yes, well, there's a lot of different things that we do.
We really try to keep it simple, and we'll talk more about that as we get into this interview. But two things that we do, one, we like to have an Advent calendar. So this is just usually, we do different things, but we've loved, Anne Voskamp has an Advent calendar book that actually has this, the little ornaments and the tree that opens up on the book, and there's just a devotional for every day.
It's really short and easy. And it's great because all ages can get involved. And it's just a good way to start your day or end your day, just reminding yourself of what Christmas is really all about. So that's one thing that we do. And then also, we like to have a giving project that we decide as a family, this is something that we're all going to give money towards. And we raise money per se all through December, and then see how much we raised and be able to give that at the end of the month.
And it just helps, again, to remind us of the reason for Christmas. Yeah. And did you say the kids actually choose the project each year? Yes, they do. They like to choose different things. And then I think that that really gives them ownership, like they've chosen it. And so then they will, in fact, they have created little boxes and been like, put your donations here and put your change here.
And it just helps them to have some buy in for it. Oh, that's so good. Well, those are great suggestions. Now, let's go over some of the things, Crystal, that most folks feel they have to do at Christmas. So where do we start? Well, I think one of the biggest things is to really start with thinking, who do you need to buy for? And I really don't like the word need, because honestly, especially in, you know, none of us really need to buy anything for anyone. But who do we feel like, you know, we should buy for? And then who do we want to buy for? And then really thinking about how much of a budget do we have? And when we look at that list of who we need to buy for, who we want to buy for, and how much budget we have, do we need to pare back?
Do we need to simplify? Or maybe we're going to give family gifts this year instead of giving individual gifts to every member of a certain family, or we're going to give experience gifts. And that's going to be something that's going to help us to stay within our budget. Yeah, and I know you're helping with that with the guide you have on your website, right?
Yes. So we put together some of just our very favorite gift ideas. These are things that could be really anybody, you know, there's your you always have those people that you're like, I don't know, it feels like they have everything, but I want to do something for them. So these are gifts that you could give to anyone, some of them are things that can be made really inexpensively and really quickly, like maybe you don't have a lot of time, you can't do this elaborate project, but some of them are food items, some of them are just cute little things like DIY Sharpie marker mugs, or movie night in a box or pedicure in a jar, just some fun things that could people would, you know, find that they're unique and would be something that would bless someone else. But also, anybody pretty much could benefit from something in this gift guide that we put together and that's for free on money saving mom calm. Check it out today.
All right. Now you mentioned budget a few moments ago, what is the best way to keep spending in check crystal? Well, there are a couple things that I recommend now we're already into December.
And so you know, hindsight is 2020. You can't start this now but thinking ahead for next year, really, ideally saving up for Christmas all year long. So setting aside money each month, I like to also encourage people, there are lots of ways that you can earn gift cards, we talked about this on money saving mom calm, but that you can then set those aside as you're earning gift cards for maybe scanning your receipts or taking surveys. And then at the end of the year, use those gift cards that you've accumulated to be able to buy things for Christmas.
Oh, that's so good. We're talking to Crystal Payne today, you'll find all of her great work to help you save money and simplify your life at money saving mom calm. You can also download this free Christmas resource that will help you plan for and execute a wonderful Christ filled Christmas.
Now when we come back, she's going to help us stretch your Christmas budget and be more intentional just around the corner. Have you downloaded the faith by app yet? You need to do that today because this is going to make your life easier. Yes, you can manage your money through the in app envelope feature. But also plan out future goals.
I want to buy a house in five years and I'm on track to do that. Here's also what I like you can connect with people around the country. It's like social media, but better ask a question, get an answer and share what you're learning about money and investing. So why don't you grab your phone right now and download the faith by app. As a faithful listener of this program, you know that there's life changing financial wisdom and God's word and faith by is here to help you and millions of others learn to be good and faithful stewards. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on help for monthly faith by patrons supporters of this mission to help us continue and expand our outreach as God provided financial answers for you through this ministry. If so, consider becoming a monthly faith by patron. Visit faith by.com and click give. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance. Our guest today is Crystal Payne.
She's the creator of the amazing website, money saving mom.com. We're talking about how you can have an intentional Christ filled Christmas this year. And Crystal's got some great ideas. Just before the break, we were talking about how you can keep spending in track. What about stretching that Christmas budget?
Crystal, what ideas do you have for us? So first off, I would really recommend, you know, you got to have a budget. And then also, if you want to stick with your budget, one of the best things that you can do is stick with cash only. Now, a lot of people, they really balk when I say this, and especially because you're like, well, there's such great deals online.
And yes, I absolutely agree with you. Money saving mom.com. We share lots and lots of great online deals, but you can actually stick with a Christmas budget when shopping online by buying a prepaid gift card or Amazon gift card or store gift cards. That way it helps you that you don't go over budget.
And so yes, it's an extra hassle, but I promise that you will be glad that you've stuck with your budget come January. And so really starting with a budget, sticking with cash, and then what are some ways that you could maybe, you know, you don't have a big budget this year. So some simple, inexpensive homemade gift ideas. I love homemade gift ideas, and I think most people do. And it also is something, you know, you put your time and effort into it.
It's unique. It's different things like homemade treats and baked goods, cookie dough for the freezer, homemade breads or granola, baking mixes and jars or homemade experience gifts like a treat every month, you could give them a calendar that it's like every month on this day, I'm going to make you a treat if it's someone who lives locally or you're going to make them dinner or you're going to provide some laundry help or babysitting, you know, giving gifts of your time. That is something that's really valuable and can be really meaningful or things like photo gifts or a meaningful letter or putting together a collection of recipes or journal entries from a loved one. I just feel like sometimes we always think it has to be something we buy at the store. But making something for someone giving gifts of our time, these can be the things that someone's going to remember for years and years to come.
Yeah, it really sends a message around how important that person is to you when you take the time to create something or give a thoughtful gift. All right, what about cooking? I mean, this comes up at Christmas time, there's so many meals and we want to celebrate but it's time consuming.
So what ideas do you have for us? So I really think about what can I make ahead of time to make hosting more enjoyable if I'm going to be hosting or just that I want to do some fun things with my kids and I want, you know, us to be able to bake cookies together or to be able to decorate cookies. What can I do ahead of time so that we can have those memories but it's not going to take a lot of effort and so maybe on a weekend sometime, you know, in this next weekend you could just sit down and make a little list and then do the grocery shopping and take a few hours to make some things ahead like cookie dough or rolls, sweet breads, desserts, look at your holiday menu and things you want to make or hope to make and then plan some time to freeze or cook ahead because that is going to save you so much time and also thinking about what shortcuts could you use. Could you buy pre-made cookie dough or bread dough?
Sometimes I found that it's the same price if you add up the cost of the ingredients and it'll save you a lot of time. Those are so helpful and practical. Now, of course, we want to spend a lot of time together as a family during the Christmas season. We're looking forward to this Christmas in particular because my oldest son went off to college this year so we're going to have him back home. All six of us are going to be together again so how do you encourage family togetherness during the Christmas season? So something that we have done for years is we call it our December bucket list and we have everyone pick out one to two special things that they want to do during the month of December and I find that as a mom this relieves so much from me because I feel like mom sometimes we feel like we have to be the purveyor of entertainment and memories for our children and sometimes the things that we think that they would really like and want to do and be all excited about that's not what they pick and so letting everybody pick one to two things it means that December is not just packed full of all the things it allows us to really focus on those few things that are important to each member of our family and it simplifies it for us and make sure that we prioritize those things that they really want to do and maybe you're like oh nobody chose the you know going to see the Nutcracker okay I guess that's not an important thing you know and so we we sit down we make that December bucket list and then we just put it on the calendar and make sure to prioritize those things and so another thing that we've done is especially if you have younger kids this is a fun thing wrapping up Christmas books and then every day getting to unwrap one and read it together and Christmas books that you already own you can even get them from the library I've done that before and just wrap them up and it makes it like it's this fun thing and you do it together and my kids my older kids have just loved that and remembering that and I'm excited to do it with our younger kids now and then another thing that we've done is we set aside so we always go back to Kansas where our family is from we live in Tennessee but we have an all-day Christmas celebration that we do just with our kids before we leave to go to Kansas and so it'll be on a day that's sometimes a week before Christmas but we just set this aside and it's been really really special and all of the kids get to kind of help plan parts of it prioritizing what's important to them and it's just a special day that we get to just savor Christmas just with our immediate family and then we can go enjoy it with grandparents as well and not feeling like we have to you know try to fit everything in right on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day yes oh those are great suggestions Crystal all right well one of the things I appreciate so much about moneysavingmom.com is that you help families and moms in particular stay organized so what are some last tips for staying organized during the holidays I am a huge believer in asking yourself the question how can I make this easier and just you know really thinking as we go through things sometimes I think we over complicate things so how can I make things easier and then write everything down in my book the time-saving mom I talk about how I use Google Calendar and a time block to-do list and there is just something about writing all the things down I like to brain dump everything that's in my head I actually put it as all-day tasks in Google Calendar and so then it's not just swimming around in my head and I have you know it feels like a thousand things up there in my head and so write it down put it in a safe place and so that you know that you've put it where you can access it but it's not just all up there in your head and then also giving up the work and letting others help so if you have kids if you have a spouse if you are going to an event or hosting an event you know see how you can help out or ask people to help you out so if someone offers to help if you're hosting take them up on it do not say oh I'm good like yeah can you bring bread or can you bring dessert or you know whatever it is ask for help let other people help you so that it's not all just falling on your shoulders yeah that's so good uh you mentioned before the break this new resource you've put together at moneysavingmom.com that's available for our listeners to go get right now for those that missed that just recap what's available there yes so we put together it's a brand new Christmas guide that has 15 different DIY Christmas gift ideas some of them are food items some of them are just homemade gifts and it's really we want to just help you simplify your holiday season come up with creative ideas for those people on your list that you're like I don't know what to get them but I want to do something for them and also to save you some money this year and so you can go to moneysavingmom.com and right at the top you'll see where you can download that Christmas guide for free we are just here we want to help to save you money and to help make your Christmas simpler and more meaningful. Crystal we always love having you stop by you bring practical advice but help us remember why we're doing what we're doing which is critical this time of year during Christmas so Crystal Merry Christmas thanks for being here today thank you so much for having me all right that's family financial expert Crystal Payne if you haven't been to our website moneysavingmom.com you need to check it out today all right we're going to be back with your questions just around the corner 800-525-7000 that's 800-525-7000 this is faith and finance we'll be right back we're grateful for support from eventide investments on the faith and finance program eventide's approach to values-based investing is grounded in the belief that humankind was created in the image of God with intrinsic dignity value and worth eventide calls this investing that makes the world rejoice more information is available at eventideinvestments.com that's eventideinvestments.com if the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind Christian credit counselors can help we're a nationwide non-profit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300 000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80 percent faster while honoring that debt in full to learn how Christian credit counselors can help you visit christiancreditcounselors.org that's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985 welcome back to faith and finance i'm rob west your host in just a moment we'll take your calls and questions on anything financial we've got some lines open today and we'd love to hear from you whatever's on your mind here's the number 800-525-7000 we're going to begin today to Sarasota Florida Tim you're next on the program go ahead yeah so my wife and I were looking to potentially buy a home in the future and the big thing that we're kind of wrestling with through right now is trying to see if we should get a loan like a first-time home buyer loan or if we should wait on that because of Sarasota housing market's kind of crazy and just trying to think through that process yeah i'm glad you are because the last thing i'd want you to do is get out ahead of yourself and trying to buy a house as much as i love home ownership i just want to make sure you guys aren't placing unnecessary pressure on your marriage and your finances by buying too much house and i realize uh real estate is challenging right now it's really challenging there in Florida uh just given what's going on with so many people moving in there's just a lot of reasons why Florida real estate's doing so well the other thing we've got to factor in is that you know home affordability is at its lowest point ever and here's why you know think about three years ago the average interest rate was three percent we're now more than double that at seven and a half percent three years ago the average median house price was three hundred thousand dollars today it's north of four hundred thousand so it's just really creating a challenging situation and it's one thing if you're selling a property and being able to maximize the increase in the property value and then roll that equity into another property it's another thing if you're entering the housing market for a full you know for the first time do we expect that home affordability is going to get a lot better well there's not really a lot of basis for a significant drop in the housing market just because we still have a shortage of homes in this country of two to three million you know the millennials are reaching age 30 they're they're starting families buying single-family homes a lot of folks that were you know working in densely populated urban areas they're moving to the suburbs because they're working remotely and they're buying houses and so you know given that and just not enough housing starts new home construction we just have a lot of pressure you know we also are in a situation where interest rates are high now that's going to get better we think you know best case for interest rates by the end of next year is somewhere in the probably the high fives whereas you know that's certainly better than seven and a half it's not great but it's better and you'd probably still want to refinance a few years later if you could drop it by at least a percentage point but that doesn't come without a cost i mean you're going to spend probably two to three percent of the mortgage value just in expenses to refinance it which is money that's just kind of going right out the door so how do you balance all that and i think the answer is just to make sure that you have financial readiness before you make this decision you know that you've saved that 20 down that you've got a mortgage payment that's no more than 25 at the most 30 of your take-home pay for principal interest taxes and insurance and i realize homeowners insurance is through the roof there in florida if you can even get it which is a challenging situation you know on top of all of this so i i guess all that to say let's go slow if for some reason you find that you're not quite there yet you don't have the down payment or you know the home that your starter house is still going to push you outside of what makes sense for your budget then i would probably wait and at the very least even if you don't get homes a lot cheaper than than you can today with the prospect of a recession i don't think you're going to see a lot of increases in home values in the next year and you may be able to lock in an interest rate a good bit lower while you take that time to continue to save does all that make sense yes yes that does that's extremely helpful thank you good uh you're very welcome listen tim i think you're doing the right thing just really pray through this i know you guys want to get in a house you want a place of your own so you know i understand that desire and and i want to affirm that i would just say be thoughtful about when you're actually ready to make that decision and go ahead with it in the meantime let's keep your lifestyle in check at a minimum cut back but at least you have a goal in mind which will help you kind of make some of those short-term sacrifices as you try to save as much as you can between now and then god bless you my friend thanks for calling today we appreciate it uh to georgia hi sherry go ahead okay i'm gonna be losing my employment at the end of this month but the the question is should i i have a 401k with my current employer it's got about 24 000 in it and i was wondering should i switch that roll that into an individual you know an ira like with my bank or would it be better to roll that into my spouse's retirement plan through his work he has a city job yeah uh yeah you're not with a retirement account it's all individual so you can roll it to an ira in your name you can't roll it into your husband's 401k or 403b or 457 or his ira all of those have to be in in one person's name and you can't mix those those assets so really the only option you have when you separate from employment sherry would be to leave it right where it is or to roll it to an ira i'd probably roll it to an ira do you all have an advisor that advises you on any of your money management uh no sir okay no problem so what i'd probably do is uh open a an account at fidelity or schwab an ira in your name you're gonna as soon as you separate from employment you'll get the paperwork to roll it over to that new ira it won't come to you you won't deposit it in your checking account and therefore it's not taxable it'll go straight into that ira and then in terms of selecting those investments that you would use i would head to soundmindinvesting.org uh and our friends there at sound mind investing could help you pick some mutual funds that align with your age and goals and objectives and then that way that money can just keep growing and you forget about it and uh you know then when you need it down the road hopefully it's a little higher than it is today and that alongside whatever other retirement you're helping out with that alongside whatever other retirement your husband has from his city job and anything else can be available for income yes sir um so i was this was very unexpected because our hr department had led me to think she was telling me that i needed to choose whether to roll that into an ira or to put it into my husband yeah i'm not sure what she was talking about there that that's just possible uh you know retirement accounts are individual only they cannot be commingled into a spouse's account oh okay all right thank you very much all right thanks for your call today sherry we appreciate it very much just before we go i want to remind you send in your donation of any amount and we'll send you the book leverage using temporal wealth for eternal gain send us your donation today simply go to faithfi.com thanks for joining us today i'll look forward to talking with you again 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