Money Musings 💭 how to “win” against holidays sales
As we approach the biggest shopping weekend of the year, I want to share the strategies I’ve developed for not over spending (too much).
For years, I matter-of-factly decided I wouldn’t buy anything on Black Friday or Cyber Monday - and I consistently failed. 🤦♀️ Sometimes bigger than others. These are five things that have changed the game for me:
I make a list of what I want to buy BEFORE the sales start and do some research. For example, I want to buy a screen for my home office and know that I’ll probably get the best deal on Cyber Monday.
I ask myself - would I buy this if it weren’t on sale? If not, I’m not saving money - I’m spending more money than I otherwise would.
I give myself as much time as possible. I’m a big fan of the 48-hour rule, but some sales don’t give us that much time. Do the best you can.
Is this purchase in my budget? And if not, and I really want it, where can I reallocate my money or let go of other expenses in order to make it work?
I visualize. It’s one week after I made the purchase. Am I using the thing? Am I happy? Do I regret it? It’s one month from now and I’m paying off my credit card bill. Am I still happy I made the purchase?
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
UNDERSTAND THE TWO BIGGEST CREDIT SCORE MYTHS.
When it comes to our credit scores, we may have an idea of what makes up our score but so much of it is a black box. That makes it really easy for myths to get perpetuated. Here are the two most common myths I hear:
⛔️ When you check your credit score, your score decreases.
This is a common misconception and is not true but I hear it all the time! You can check your own credit score as much as you want without impacting your score.
Where I believe this misconception comes from is that it does decrease your score when a lender or bank makes a hard inquiry into your score. They can only legally do this with your permission and it usually happens when you are opening a credit card or taking out a loan.
⛔️ Keeping a balance on your credit card helps your credit score.
The other common myth that’s arguably more financially damaging is that holding a balance on your credit card improves your score. That is NOT the case. This is a very convenient myth for credit card companies because when we keep a balance on our credit cards we pay them interest.
Holding a balance on our credit cards can cost tons of money in interest, especially with credit card interest rates at 20-25%!
Long story short, not only does holding a balance NOT improve your score it can actually decrease your score and cost you money in interest.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
ARE WOMEN PENALIZED FOR THEIR CONFIDENCE?
We hear it all the time: men are promoted more and earn more simply because they ask for it. And we know that’s false.
Another one? Women lag behind men in their careers because they’re not confident enough. (Also false!)
A study found that confidence is linked to better prospects for promotion at work - but only for men. The paper dives into this claim by examining the empirical link between a person's confidence and job promotion prospects through a gender lens.