Holiday Spending Woes

Holiday Spending Woes. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Holidays spending woes. Yeah, I saw this and I was like,
come on, people, twenty eight percent, twenty eight percent of
credit card users are still paying off last year's holiday debt.
Twenty eight percent? Was it worth it? Was it worth

(00:42):
paying for things two to three times over that you
still haven't paid off? I don't quite for Frankly, I
don't understand the concept of doing this. You're buying gifts.
I understand for people that you care about and love
and you want to take care of them. But if
those people care for you and love for you too,

(01:03):
did you think that they want you to be put
out and burdened and having the stuff that you gave
them essentially own them over the course of the year.
I don't think so. Again, I certainly don't hope so.
And if that's somebody who you're buying for, then obviously
don't care very much about you. Holiday season is coming

(01:29):
up again, you know, I'm a I'm a big believer
in spending money on time. Yeah, time, time with people
that I care about, things, memories, things they're going to
carry around. Yeah, it's nice getting you know, something nice
from time to time. I understand that, But at what costs?

(01:51):
Credit card that you're talking in the twenty five thirty percent,
twenty eight percent users still paying all last year. Again,
this is why people, you're not able to get ahead,
you're not able to build wealth because you buy into
all this crap.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Here.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Here's here's a suggestion for you. Here's a suggestion. Okay,
you got your family, you got your family, Okay, you
know what to pick. You pick a name out of
a hat, do a secret stand, and then you pick
a dollar amount. You pick a dollar amount. You can't
spend over a certain amount. Again, gift cards are not

(02:30):
allowed in this endeavor. And then you go out and
you put an enormous amount of thought into the gift
that you're going to go out there and buy, and
you make it a well thought out gift. It works,
it works. And again it's you're not going to get
yourself into a hole over the course of the year.

(02:53):
And this this spending is nonsense. Actually, I've been avoiding
TV for a while. It got exhausting for me, just
not a lot of not a lot of intelligent questions
or reasons for even having me on why they wanted
to have me on. So I said, okay, okay, yeah,
I'll do it. I got asked to do a program.
They were talking about people doom spending last night. I'm like,

(03:17):
doom spending? You mean like retail therapy. Well, they framed it.
CNN framed this story. Are Americans are out there buying
pocketbooks because they're upset about the election. I'm like, what
that's that's retail therapy. This is nothing new. People come
up with excuses to buy things all the time. It's

(03:39):
like they come up with holidays as excuses to drink. Yeah,
sinking to my O. Cut on, I got eat it.
I mean, it's come on, this is nothing new. And
with some of the things that we're seeing. I did
this past year, more and more younger people out there
saying screw it, We're not saving ah house? Is it

(04:00):
work expensive? I'll never be able to afford anything. I'll
never be able to do this. I might as well
just go blow money. Well, again, that's on you. That's
on you having your money invested and having your money
work for you. It's actually a good thing. That's how
you build wealth over time. West certainly not getting in

(04:22):
over your head and credit card debt, nor doom spending
watchdog on Wall street dot com