Avoid Christmas Shopping Debt

Posted by Brian Tubbs Dec 15, 2007

Christian financial counselor Dave Ramsey is telling Christmas shoppers to "make a plan" this holiday season and "avoid debt."

What's the game plan? Dave explains:

You put a dollar figure besides each person's name and what you want to buy them, and you total that up, and that's called your Christmas budget. And if you don't have the cash to do that, [remember that] you're not Congress -- you can't just keep voting yourself a raise and spending money that's not yours. You need to cut that budget back if you don't have the cash to do that.

But....what about credit cards? In his article "The Truth About Credit Card Debt," Dave writes: "There is NO positive side to credit card use."

Dave Ramsey is right. We need to cut the credit card habit. I can be as guilty of this as the next person. And it's very easy to rationalize. We need to guard against such rationalizations, and instead exercise sound discipline and money management.