Financial Tips to Keep Your Holidays Merry

The holidays should be joyful, not overwhelming. A little planning can help you and your family enjoy more of the holidays while keeping finances on track!

Starting with a holiday budget is one of the easiest ways to stay on track. List gift ideas, travel plans, and seasonal activities, and set a spending limit that fits comfortably within your normal monthly budget. Using a separate account like our Goal-Based Savings account can help you keep your spending organized.

The holidays are sadly also prime time for scammers looking to exploit heightened emotions. Be sure to stay focused and watch carefully for things like:

• Unbeatable deals. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. “Adopt that phrase as your mantra while navigating the fraud-riddled online shopping landscape this year, and you’ll avoid the most dangerous scammers on community auction and selling websites, such as Amazon, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Walmart.”¹
• Fake delivery text scams. With this scam, fraudsters often claim to be major carriers, notifying you that your package is on hold, your parcel was damaged, or the label contains incomplete information. They will then prompt you to click a link where you can “resolve the issue” or “complete the missing information.” For more information on this scam, read this article².
• Fraudulent online storefronts. “Netcraft’s global snapshots reveal a consistent seasonal surge in fraudulent domains as November begins. During the first few weeks of October, we saw an average of 54 domains per day mentioning Black Friday. By the end of October, we saw an average of 74 domains/day mentioning Black Friday. And by the first week of November, the average daily number of domains mentioning Black Friday reached 306, alongside approximately 4,760 domains blocked per day. The takeaway: the ramp toward Black Friday is abrupt and concentrated, giving shoppers little time to react.”³ Learn more here.

Careful planning and mindful spending can help you better enjoy the traditions you love without financial stress lingering into the new year.

¹https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/is-that-holiday-deal-a-scam-heres-how-to-tell

²https://www.cnbohio.com/spotting-holiday-text-scams/

³https://www.netcraft.com/blog/inside-the-2025-fake-shop-shift-less-noise-more-deception