everything else—priceless
by reeta bochner wolfsohn

Whatever visions the holidays conjure up for you (friends, family, food, decorations, parties, traveling, etc.) all come with a price tag.

MasterCard™ advertises that they will help you to purchase everything you need today to create priceless holiday memories for tomorrow. And they will. Happily. Why not, they’ll make lots of money doing so! They, like so many other businesses, lead us to believe that the “things” we buy are what make “everything else – priceless.” And believe we do…

In 2002 holiday spending was $850 - $1,750 per person. Facilitated by the use of credit cards, U.S. consumers typically overspend their holiday budgets by 15% to 30%. Sixty percent of consumers DO NOT pay off their entire bill when it arrives. The typical U.S. household carries an average credit-card balance of $7,500 and over 40% of US families spend more than they earn.

Making only the minimum payment on a $4,800 credit card balance at a 17% annual interest rate, would take 39 years and 7 months to pay for the privilege of spending money you didn’t have. You would pay an additional $10,818.63 in interest – (total of $15,619) for merchandise that originally cost $4,800 and that you probably no longer have or remember.

That kind of debt makes credit card companies rich and makes you work countless hours and days to pay off interest that doesn’t benefit you in any way. According to USA Today, money is the number one stressor in people’s lives. Money (debt) is also a major cause of depression and low self-esteem. These result from the guilt and shame that women experience when they have financial problems.

If you don’t want to continue to spend your money that way and your time worrying and stressing over how to make ends meet, clean up your credit, pay for car repairs or save for a home, then you need to recognize that everything has a price and only Y-O-U can determine whether the price is worth paying. Price refers to dollars and cents in the traditional sense, but it also has much broader implications for your quality of life.

Begin to end the cycle of debt and self-sabotaging behavior in your life by rethinking, reshaping and restructuring your holidays to be more meaningful and less expensive. Develop a new and different holiday model, one that honors what is truly priceless to you, rather than revering the traditional media holiday archetype.

Sure there may be resistance from some family and friends who remain stuck in the old overspending model. This is a part of the price you pay for choosing to create emotional stability and financial security, rather than more debt and stress. Recognize it for what it is—just another obstacle along your life path—and embrace it.

Personal and financial growth is enhanced when obstacles are acknowledged and welcomed rather than avoided and ignored. Every obstacle is a test of commitment, a chance to prove something, a lesson waiting to be learned. Every obstacle provokes new thoughts, demands new strengths and provides the O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y to become a wiser version of your former self.

Each obstacle you overcome is a marker that measures your progress toward your goals. Obstacles provide the motivation to grow, the incentive to change, the impetus to reevaluate your beliefs, a reason to overcome complacency and the chance to realize more of your potential.

There is much to be learned from obstacles, but that doesn’t mean you must constantly be tripping over them on your life journey. If where you are isn’t where you want to be then learn your lessons—don’t allow yourself, anyone or anything else to stop you, then move on in a more positive direction by making different choices today than the ones you’ve made in the past.

The “Gender of Money” is the price women pay for being born female. Put it to work for you, instead of against you, by giving yourself the most priceless gift of all this holiday season—the commitment to a more emotionally stable and financially secure future. It is a gift far more priceless than any other you could ever give or receive and one that keeps on giving: hope, promise and self-esteem.

“…the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
Henry David Thoreau

Reeta Bochner Wolfsohn, CMSW is the founder of The Femonomics Institute which provides individual counseling, support groups, products and programs that help women to create long-term emotional stability and financial security.
[ 828-658-1919; reeta@femonomics.com ]