Holiday spending is putting a big strain on American wallets and leaving some in debt well past the holiday season; however, personal finance expert Dave Ramsey said "mind-blowing" debt can be avoided.
"The average over the last several years has been that people pay their credit card debt from Christmas into May," The Ramsey Solutions personality shared during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. "So it takes them about half the year to come back, and because they don't plan for Christmas… it sneaks up on them like they move it or something."
According to a study conducted by Achieve, the average American will spend more than $2,000 for the 2024 holiday season, breaking down the outflow of cash into travel and holiday spending on hosting parties, food, clothing, and other gifts.
STOP OVERSPENDING OVER THE HOLIDAYS AND START THE NEW YEAR OFF FINANCIALLY STRONG
Another recent survey by CouponBirds indicated that parents will spend an average of $461 per child and that 49% of parents will go into debt to pay for this Christmas.
The Ramsey Solutions personality balked at the amount of money shelled out for the season while explaining that the holiday should not come as a shock, and that spending for it should be planned out.
"Those numbers are mind-blowing when you look at the averages there. That's a lot of money going out," Ramsey added, "all in the name of happiness comes from stuff, and it doesn't."
He also weighed in and agreed on advice from fellow expert, Ramsey Solutions personality and daughter Rachel Cruze, who suggested making a list of people to shop for and noting how much to spend on each.
"You know, I'm old, and I met a guy from the North Pole," the expert joked. "He said ‘make a list and check it twice,' so Rachel's right."
Ramsey followed up by expanding on his daughter's suggestion: "If you do that, and you put a name beside it, and then you total up those dollar amounts, you have what's called a Christmas budget."
"If you stick to that, you won't overspend," "The Ramsey Show" host remarked.
The money guru pointed out what he sees as problematic with the holiday season – not taking a shot at Christmas itself – but referring back to the spending issues.
"The problem with Christmas is not that we enjoy buying gifts for someone else. That's a wonderful thing," he reassured. "The problem is we impulse our butts off, and we double up what we spend because the retailers make all their money during this season."
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Ramsey concluded by advising shoppers to be wary of retailers and to not be ensnared by their marketing strategies.
"They're great merchandisers," he warned. "They're great at putting stuff in front of us that we hadn't planned to buy."
