Podcast Archives - Jay Garvens

        It’s safe to say I have more experience than most when it comes to real estate investing. I’ve been investing personally for years; I regularly network with other real estate investors; and I’ve helped educate hundreds of individuals on the subject through my investment property seminars, classes, and radio shows. But once the basics of real estate investing are covered, it’s time to turn the focus to strategy and consider how real estate will fit into your broader investment portfolio and your future plans.

With real estate, it’s important to differentiate between properties as assets and as investments. An asset is a thing of value—a stock, a house, etc. An investment is merely an asset that generates income. Every homeowner has an asset: the house. But the point of real estate investing is to turn that asset into an investment, and the best way to do that is to use a house to generate income. While houses will almost always appreciate—with the housing collapse a notable exception to that rule—you will see far greater returns through renting the house out.

It used to be that investing in rental properties had two steps: first, one would use the rental income to help pay down the mortgage; then, once the mortgage is paid off, the house would be ‘cash-flowing’ and generating positive income each month. However, the last few years have allowed both steps to occur at once. Since it now costs less to own a home than to rent, an investor can take out a standard 30-year mortgage—and sometimes even a 15-year mortgage—and collect rents in excess of the mortgage and maintenance costs. With my last few properties, I immediately achieved positive cash-flow. Now, my renters are both paying down the mortgage at no net-cost to me and putting a couple hundred dollars in my pocket each month.

Compared to investing in the stock market, real estate has obvious and immediate benefits. You can entirely leverage the asset, have someone else pay down the mortgage over time, accumulate equity as the house appreciates, and earn income month-to-month. That is impossible to do with stocks and most other investments. It would be like taking out a loan to buy stocks, having someone else pay down the loan for you, while you collect dividends plus the value of the stocks once liquidated. Furthermore, the returns on real estate are far higher. Once a rental property is paid for, it will on average cash-flow at five times the rate of return on stocks. That is, $1 million in real estate will generate the same returns as $5 million in stocks.

But, of course, stocks are always an integral part of any investment portfolio. It would be foolish to invest entirely in real estate. Heaven forbid a person has 100% of their net worth in real estate and then retires during a time like the Great Recession. It is always important to diversify—to hold stocks, property, and cash so that each acts as a hedge against the others.

There are, of course, unlimited strategies investors can deploy to achieve their goals, both short-term and long-term. But considering the cost of real estate, it’s unwise for amateur investors to experiment with actual houses. That’s why education is crucial: take time to study the market and study others who have invested in real estate. Talk with people who have done it, talk with real estate agents, and read books by real estate investors. Learn as much as you can before investing in earnest, and you’ll reap the rewards with as little risk as possible.

5-16-15 Real Estate Investment Strategies

I do love finding a good metaphor, and earlier this week I found myself literally tripping over one on my front porch—tripping, slipping, and stumbling over it, several times a day. It’s a sheet of ice caused by packed snow that had melted and re-froze. I was out of town when the snow came and nobody was around to shovel the snow off the porch. There is now an immovable impediment on my porch which, had it been addressed early, would have been far easier to remove. I can’t help but see this as a perfect metaphor for how we live our lives.

All over town I still see snow piled up on the north side of buildings, covering driveways and sidewalks and porches. Oftentimes, the same street will have houses alternating between shoveled walkways and un-shoveled walkways. Clearly some people take the ‘shovel early’ approach to life while others take the ‘shovel later, or wait for it to melt, or just deal with the consequences later’ approach.

I, of course, take the ‘shovel early’ approach and encourage others to do the same. Time has a way of compounding small problems into much more difficult, or even impossible, problems. Instead of moving a couple inches of snow early, you’ll end up chiseling away solid ice later. If you leave a bill unpaid now, you’ll end up with a collection, excess fines, and damaged credit later.

This isn’t limited to addressing current problems, either; it applies equally to structuring your life and finances now to make things easier down the road. It means, for example, taking out a small loan or credit card early in life to start establishing a credit history. It means paying your bills on time to avoid collections. It means saving money even if you don’t have a particular savings goal in mind, such as purchasing a house or paying for college tuition. Contrary to popular belief, it is far more difficult to secure a loan for a borrower who has no credit than terrible credit. A borrower with a 580 credit score is more likely to get a loan than someone with no credit score or no credit history, simply because the lender can’t be sure whether than borrower will behave like an 800-FICO borrower or a 400-FICO borrower. The 580-FICO borrower is at least a known quantity. It’s remarkable how many late-20s to early-30s borrowers I see who have no established credit history. Those who began building their credit history early, ideally as soon as they turn 18, are in a much better position than those who have procrastinated.

As the snow starts to melt—or, to leave the metaphor for the real world for a moment, as the economy starts to improve—we’ll all have an opportunity to start over. We should use better weather as an opportunity to correct our behavior and prepare for the next winter. As the economy continues to improve and the housing market continues to recover, more opportunities will present themselves to more people. Those best positioned to take advantage of them are those who started preparing their finances early.

3-7-15 The Snow and Shovel Approach to Life

  I don’t know whom to blame more for the poor image millionaires have in this country: Scrooge McDuck or Rich Uncle Pennybags. Maybe both are to blame in equal measure. Either way, when Americans think “millionaire” they think of swimming pools filled with gold bullion or cars racing around Park Avenue with money flying out the window. This is the wrong way to look at wealth. Fortunately, most actual millionaires know this. For many, their wealth is the product of extreme thrift and financial discipline. Any individual aspiring to great wealth needs to ‘get in the mind of a millionaire’ and learn not only how to amass a great fortune but also how to keep it.

Did you know Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart, drove the same old pickup truck his entire life? Or that Warren Buffett still lives in the same house he purchased in 1958 for $31,500? Most wealthy people exercise extraordinary thrift, which is the principle behind Thomas Stanley’s “The Millionaire Next Door.” You could not identify most millionaires by their appearance or profligate spending habits because, if they behaved in such a way, they would not be millionaires for long! Wealthy people do not just earn money but save it, which is why the aphorism “a penny saved is a penny earned” is wisdom of the highest order.

Most wealthy people have mastered the art of having their money work for them. They abhor wasteful spending—on fancy clothes, large mansions, and other frivolities—but they are not opposed to debt, either. They abhor useless debt, such as credit card or student loan debt, but many will use debt to make more money, with the idea being that they can use a given amount of money to earn more from it than the lender charges in interest.

Sam Walton, for example, used his highly efficient supply chain to make debt work for him. He could turn over his entire inventory in three days, but would only have to pay his vendors every 30 days. He used this fact to grow his inventory exponentially, earning his return on several generations of inventory before he had to pay his vendor for even one!

Similarly, many wealthy people will leverage their homes or other assets, even though they could purchase those homes outright for cash. Instead of owning a home free-and-clear, they will take out a mortgage on it for, say, $250,000. They can then invest that $250,000 to make 8-10% returns or more on some other investment, while the mortgage debt only costs 3-4% per year in interest. This is a smart application of debt. Of course, most people should start on a smaller scale and resist the temptation to cash-out their entire house and shove the proceeds into the stock market.

Images of Scrooge McDuck diving into a pool of gold coins gives people the wrong impression of wealth. It is not a fun and frivolous enterprise. Wealth demands extraordinary discipline and a dedication to thrift, both to earn it and to keep it. Short of winning the lottery, you cannot hope to become a millionaire without first thinking like one. This will be a continuing theme of this show, so be sure to stay tuned for tips and examples of the lost art of thrift.

2-14-15 Get in the Mind of a Millionaire

If you’ve been following the Jay Garvens Show since the start of the year, then congratulations! You’ve completed my crash-course in real estate and demographics. You know where the economy has been, where it’s going, and, most importantly, why it’s going where it’s going. You’re now ready to build on that knowledge, practice what you’ve learned, and prepare yourself and your family for the immediate future, when numerous financial and economic opportunities will present themselves.

Most individuals and households already know what to do to make their financial situations stronger and less precarious. Few, however, are disciplined enough to actually do it. Presently, I am less concerned with knowledge here as I am with action. Lord knows you have had sufficient time to learn all you need to know by reading books by Ramsey, Maxwell, and Stanley. Our concern now is to take what you’ve learned and formulate an actionable plan that will deliver results.

Your first priority should be to find a mentor—someone who has achieved whatever it is you hope to achieve and can offer you immediate and enduring guidance and counsel. If you’re interested in purchasing investment properties to rent or flip, seek out someone who has done this successfully. If your dream is to run a business, find someone who has established one of their own. Successful individuals are rarely shy about sharing their knowledge and expertise with those following a similar path.

There is a substantial element of risk in all endeavors, and you need to position yourself to make taking these risks easier. You need to take a step back to get a running start. This means cutting out excess expenses in your budget. It means paying off debt. It means getting rich by acting poor. Recently, I downgraded from a Mercedes to a used Ford Escape. I flew halfway across the county to pick it up and drive it back to Colorado. Most people would consider the transition from a Mercedes to a Ford to be a step back. In reality, cutting excess fat from my budget by opting for a practical car versus a luxury car makes me better situated to, say, take on more mortgage debt or put more money into savings.

I started tightening my belt right before the real estate bubble of the early 2000s. I unloaded several investment properties and moved my family into a sensible house. Recently I have started acquiring more investment properties with my wife. Had I acted rashly by snapping up properties while the real estate bubble was inflating, I would have been in far worse shape once it burst. Instead, I acted prudently to seek out value rather than wealth, and today I am much better off for having done so.

To be successful, you must look at every transaction—from grocery shopping to car buying—as value propositions. Seek out the best value you can so your money goes as far as possible. You need to reform your household budget and start acting in a value-minded way as soon as possible. This will allow you to pursue opportunities as they emerge over the next several years. This is, however, only the beginning. Stay tuned as we discuss the next steps over the next few months.

 

2-7-15 Let’s Get This Thing Started

            January was quite the demographics marathon on the Jay Garvens Show, with this week’s show being the fourth in a row on the subject. I know you’re wondering: “How can someone stack four shows on top of each other and not reach a conclusion?” Well, this week’s show reaches a conclusion of sorts; it takes the knowledge we’ve gained throughout the month and explains what it all means to you.

Demographic data and trends have real, tangible effects on all individuals. They aren’t just abstract economic trivia you hear about on the news; they’re the reason the economy has been depressed for over seven years and why interest rates are currently hovering near historic lows. They’re also why everything is going to reverse in 2020 and we’ll be set for a generation of rapid and high-quality economic growth. The Baby Boomers have been exiting the labor market since the mid-2000s, taking their productivity with them. They spend less in their retirement years and Generation X was simply too small to make up the difference.

Of course, demographic data changes as you zoom in to micro-economies like states and cities. Denver and Colorado Springs have fared far better than the American economy as a whole, and for good reason: Our demographics are younger than the US population generally. The Millennial wave that is set to sweep the country is arriving early to the Front Range cities. We managed to avoid the excesses of the real estate bubble and have seen steady—and at times rapid—growth in property values. Granted, the state of the broader US economy will affect local economies and national demographics will limit how rapidly we can grow in Colorado. But at any given time, Colorado will out-perform the rest of the country simply because we have a larger proportion of younger individuals reaching their peak productive years.

But where does this put you? As I’ve stated on every show this year, it puts you in a unique position to capitalize on the inevitable. Unless we’re hit by a plague or alien invasion that only affects our youngest citizens, the Millennial wave cannot be stopped. We know the economy will putter along for a few more years and then take off around 2020. We know that those who prepare now will be in a better financial position to take advantage of the new opportunities this economic growth will offer. And preparation largely means financial preparation. It means maximizing your earnings potential and paying off debt. It means getting rid of your student loans and refinancing your home immediately. These are the golden years of mortgage interest rates, and by 2020 people will look back at the 3-4% interest rate as a fond yet distant memory.

2015 will be an interesting year for both the economy generally and the mortgage/real estate industries specifically. Denver and Colorado Springs are well-positioned to enjoy an earlier-than-expected economic recover, but mixed economic date both domestically and internationally may dampen those prospects. We’ll have a lot to discuss this year on these topics and more, but it was great to be able to spend January discussing demographics in depth and to introduce the principal theme of this show to our new Denver audience.

1-31-15 Your Demographics in America

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome a whole new listenership to the Jay Garvens Show, as this week marked our inaugural show on 760 AM in Denver. They will be joining our established audience on 1240 AM here in Colorado Springs. To mark the occasion, we brought in Colorado Springs’s premier real estate expert, Bill McAfee of Empire Title, to talk about our local markets and treat our new Denver audience to the keen insights and unique analysis that our Colorado Springs audience has come to expect each time Bill is a guest on our show!

I’ve discussed demographics a lot over the last few years, but listeners in Denver may not have been up to speed on what we have covered so far. To help them out, I reviewed many of the key concepts that we have covered on this show previously. With Bill’s help, we were able to take these concepts and apply them to the Denver market. This helped acquaint Denver’s listeners with these concepts while giving Colorado Springs listeners a new and probably very familiar market to contrast with Colorado Springs’s market to see how demographic variables can change an entire market.

Many are surprised to learn that Colorado Springs is the 44th largest metro area in the country—probably because the city is so spread out and doesn’t feel very large. Denver, meanwhile, is the 21st most populous metro area. Those who watched the real estate markets in both areas, however, saw that Denver was a red-hot market throughout 2012 and 2013 when Colorado Springs’s market saw only moderate gains in house prices. Our market, while robust, lacked the dramatic increases that Denver witnessed.

What accounted for this difference? Demographics! Denver’s population is generally younger and less fluid than Colorado Springs—which is to say they don’t have as high a proportion of highly mobile people as the Springs does as a result of the various Army and Air Force bases. Denver residents move there to start careers and stay put long enough to start families and move to bigger homes. Denver has a vibrant tech sector that attracts young, relatively wealthy professionals that prefer to concentrate themselves inside the city.

While differences can be seen between the Denver and Colorado Springs metro areas, even bigger differences can be seen within the Denver metro area by contrasting areas such as Cherry Creek and Capitol Hill with places like Aurora or Littleton. Areas closer to downtown Denver saw much faster appreciation than Denver’s suburbs, and the values have remained high even as the state and national real-estate market has softened over the last year or so. Like us, Denver was also fortunate to have escaped the worst excesses of the early-2000s construction boom that afflicted places like Phoenix and Las Vegas. This probably helped control the housing supply and is now helping drive up the demand of housing.

We are absolutely thrilled to introduce ourselves to Denver, and I am looking forward to hearing from Denver listeners for new insights into their market and hopefully teach them some new things in return. The differences between our two markets offer an ideal laboratory to analyze the effects demographics on local markets, and it will be incredibly fascinating to see how both our markets evolve over the next few years as the Millennials begin to reach their peak productive years. Stay tuned!

1-24-2015 Demographics in Your Own Backyard

  This economy is really booming, ain’t it? They said it would happen. All last year we heard stories of the economy finally picking up and predictions that 2015 would be the year the US economy finally turned the corner. And it’s finally here! Wait, what? It isn’t?  The economy is still idling? Record numbers are still out of the workforce and wages have declined? Interest rates have cratered since the fall? How is that possible? Well, if you’re a regular listener of this show you know this wasn’t only possible but inevitable. Demographically speaking, a meaningful economic recovery is still years away.

After hitting a two-year peak in September, rates are now at a 20-month low with little chance of improving. Mostly this is because of global economic uncertainty, but it also reflects the fragility of our so-called economic recovery. Jobs reports oscillate between underwhelming and treading water, and the marked decline in the jobless rate—presently at 5.8%–is both historically high and still misleading; it does not factor the record-high number of US workers who have left the workforce. Beyond this, wages have actually declined in recent quarters.

There are many theories to explain the softness of this recovery—now entering its 7th year—but the one I find most convincing is the one posited by such writers and thinkers as Harry Dent, which is that the demographics of America’s population are preventing a meaningful economic recovery. As the Baby Boomers exit the workforce and tighten their spending, we are relying on Generation X to pick up the slack. Since Generation X was the first generation in US history to actually be smaller than its preceding generations, they have found it impossible to replace the Boomers. There simply aren’t enough Gen Xers to produce the kind and quality of economic activity that the Boomers produced.

Consider the most recent statistics on home-buying. The breakdown of the ages of homebuyers is as follows:

 

* 31% are ages 23-34

* 37% are ages 35-49

* 30% are ages 50-70

* and 2% are 71 or older

 

One-third of homebuyers are over the age of 50, and another one-third are in the financially-immature years of 23-34. The kinds of homes these two demographics are buying are typically small, older, and have recently-though-no-new appliances. The housing industry cannot thrive with the buying habits of these demographics, and such ancillary industries as furniture manufacturers and appliance makers cannot thrive, either.

Fortunately, with the Millennials set to come of age beginning in 2020, we are set for a massive economic expansion. The Millennials will start to become financially and economically mature, and will not only replace the lost economic activity of the Boomers but far surpass them. In the meantime, we will no doubt continue to hear stories of “green shoots” and lower unemployment, just as we heard throughout 2014. But as today’s low rates show, those stories are not convincing anyone. There is still great uncertainty about our economy and its capacity to grow, and this uncertainty will persist until the Millennials finally come of age.

1-10-2015 21 Demographically Speaking

What makes a great leader? How does an individual not only pursue a goal but convince others to pursue it with him? As the founder of a company, and the co-founder of a family, I have learned that no group of individuals can survive, let alone thrive, without good leadership. And one of the best books I’ve read on the topic is John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. These laws address the nature of leadership, of leaders, and of followers, and are essential knowledge for anyone hoping to lead a group toward a single and collective goal—whether that group is a family, a group of friends, a church, or a business.

People tend to take good leadership for granted since there are few occasions when a bad leader finds himself in a leadership position; few people know what bad leadership looks like. Because of this, most people don’t put much thought into the nature of leadership. First and foremost, leadership is a process—not a goal. The interaction between leaders and follows occurs minute-by-minute and is a continuing process of learning and developing (Law #3 – The Law of Process). Leadership depends on momentum; just as it is easier to push a rolling car, it is easier to push a group when there is already momentum to be found (#16 – The Law of Big Mo). And as the group grows and progresses, it will do so more rapidly with more leaders. Many people in leadership positions only lead followers; the best leaders lead other leaders so that the group can grow exponentially (Law #20 – The Law of Explosive Growth).

Many of the best leaders have an innate understanding of these laws. They have an intuitive leadership bias (Law #8 – The Law of Intuition). They see the world with a leadership bias and process information differently than people who follow. This isn’t to say leaders are born and not made, but simply that some people will have an easier time of it and the very best will naturally find themselves in leadership positions. These people will assert themselves, which others find an attractive quality when deciding whom to follow (Law #7 – The Law of Respect), and their personal characters will determine the kinds of people they attract in the first place (Law #9 – The Law of Magnetism).

While leaders typically have an intuitive understanding of what makes good leadership, they often don’t understand the nature of their followers. This can impede some leaders from continual growth as their followers get sick of them and leave to find a more accommodating leader. Followers needs to have a positive example set for them (Law #2 – The Law of Influence) and need to be guided toward purposeful action. They often need leaders to help bring out the best in themselves, to let each individually contribute to the group’s success (Law #5 – The Law of Addition). Finally, they need to respect the leader and buy into the leader as an individual. Only then will they proceed to buy into that leader’s overall vision (Law #14 – The Law of the Buy-in).

We only touched on a handful of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership here. If you’re interested in learning about all of them, be sure to check out this week’s show in the online archive, and pick up Maxwell’s book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. These laws are as applicable to households as to businesses, and I believe everyone can benefit from learning them, practicing them, and mastering them.

12-27-2014 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

I’ve been offering advice on finances and mortgages for over 15 years, and have helped hundreds of individuals and families—both in person and through the radio—resolve every financial problem imaginable. In that time, I have heard the phrase “easier said than done” countless times. And, indeed, most of the common-sense solutions to financial problems that you hear from radio and TV hosts or book authors are much easier to say—to package into simple, single-sentence platitudes—than to execute. For many individuals, this is because the advice runs counter to their nature; some individuals may be genetically predisposed to unwise behavior. This week’s show explores this idea and offers solutions.

Oftentimes the difficulty in executing certain advice, sound as it may be, reflects the difficulty of the situation. Mountains of debt, large monthly financial obligations, or a sudden loss of a job create conditions that make the practice of sound financial advice difficult. That is understandable and, fortunately, can often be easily remedied by making better choices—forgoing expensive dinners to instead pay off debt; downsizing an unnecessarily large house, using the saved money toward monthly bills, and saving the excess. But for some people, the accumulation of debt and large monthly financial obligations isn’t the result of a sudden shock but the result of undisciplined decision-making that they often cannot help.

It’s difficult for most people to empathize with an individual who has a genetic pre-disposition toward certain behavior. We can’t understand how other people willfully allow such things as alcohol, gambling, or shopping to ruin their lives. For most of us, it’s easy to say ‘enough.’ But for others, the thrill of immediate gratification is more important than delayed reward. In the realm of finances, this means spending whole paychecks or going into debt to buy new things rather than squirreling away money for future use—or, if you’re like my father, squirreling away money just for the sake of squirreling away money!

Some people are temperamentally inclined toward disciplined saving; others are temperamentally inclined toward reckless spending. Obviously it is far wiser to save than to spend, and so it seems those who are inclined toward saving are luckier than those inclined toward spending—although, truth be told, the only people that are immune from the temptation of spending sprees are ascetic monks. Everyone has to resist temptations to buy unnecessary things or assume financial obligations that they can’t afford. It’s just that the impulse to behave this way is far stronger for some people than for others, and often this is the result of genetics.

But genetics is not fate. As human beings, we’re not only able to make choices but to understand that one choice is inherently better than another. People are naturally inclined toward being brutish, selfish, and mean-spirited, but we’re able to act against our natures and decide we would rather be charitable and kind—most of the time. This is equally true for financial decisions. Just because it’s more difficult for some people to make the right decision does not mean it’s impossible; it simply means they need to exercise more resolve and discipline.

It’s easy for my to ignore this reality when giving advice. Since I only have one hour, I often condense advice into bullet points to tell people what they should do without fully recognizing the difficulty often involved in doing it. This show was meant to acknowledge the difficulty involved in practicing my advice, and to acknowledge that some people will find it far more difficult than others. As I give advice in the coming months—and especially during the start of the New Year—keep in mind that easy and simple advice is not meant to be easy and simple in practice, and although it can be difficult,

If you have been monitoring interest rates over the last several years, you may have noticed that rates don’t take a holiday during the winter months. The fourth quarter often sees a lot of activity with large movements in rates. After a sharp spike in the third quarter of 2013, rates have been trending downward, and even created a miniature refinance boom similar to 2012. For many people, this has renewed their interest in personal finances and made them more aware of Financial Seasons—both within their own household and within the broader economy.

As with all organic and complex systems, the economy goes in cycles. It ebbs and flows and follows a consistent, if unpredictable, pattern. We generally know what it will do, but we never know when it will do it. After the optimism of 2013, we’re now seeing more pessimism in the markets. Interest rates, consumer confidence, and business confidence all trended lower in 2013. Market data in the US, Europe, and Asia were mixed, and typical financial hotspots like Europe and South America either exploded or seem poised to. The world seems to be on the verge of something significant, although nobody knows whether that something will be good or bad.

Market-watchers pay close attention to consumer habits during the holiday season since this may indicate their mood for the entire next year. If they’re feeling more confident they will likely buy more. Early figures suggest holiday spending will be higher than last year, though a disappointing Black Friday—or Black Thursday, if we’re being technical—indicated consumers aren’t in a hurry to spend money. They seem both more confident and more cautious, perhaps because 2013 was good to them but they aren’t sure 2015 won’t disappoint.

This development—feeling confident while acting with discipline—is a very good development. It means people are taking the winter months as an opportunity to evaluate their own finances—to use it as their own personal Financial Season. For decades now, people have used the holidays as an excuse to go ballistic with spending. While this was never a good thing, it was less dire in years past when the economy was generally very good and people could easily recover from an imprudent spending binge. But now, people feel those massive Christmas bills for the rest of the year. It begins the year with the wrong tone—with bills that feel overwhelming and distract from other, more important financial goals.

For this reason, I recommend everyone do two things this holiday season. First, use discipline with your holiday shopping. Don’t go crazy with it. Although this is a hard thing for natural gift-givers to avoid, the immediate gratification of buying and giving a great present is not as important as starting the year on more sound financial footing. Second, use this firmer financial footing to address your other financial goals, like paying off debt or saving for a house. Starting the year with debt is discouraging and makes your other goals seem unreachable. But starting with less extra debt—or, ideally, no extra debt!—allows you to spend more energy and resources on other, non-Christmas-related financial issues.

As we move toward the New Year, it’s imperative to avoid the temptation of using the Christmas season as one last irresponsible hurrah. Start your New Years resolutions early! If your goal is to lose weight, resolve to eat less during the holidays. If your goal is to save money or pay off debt, resolve to spend less on gifts and frivolities. Done right, it may even allow you to go nuts next year without going into debt.

12-6-2014 Financial Seasons