{"id":89242,"date":"2018-03-15T11:18:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T15:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=89242"},"modified":"2018-03-15T10:23:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T14:23:21","slug":"its-never-too-early-to-start-saving-for-the-2018-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=89242","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Never too Early to Start Saving for the 2018 Holiday Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It\u2019s Never too Early to Start Saving for the 2018 Holiday Season<\/strong><\/p>\n

The holidays have come and gone, but it\u2019s never too early to start saving for next year\u2019s holiday season. According to American Research Group Inc., planned gift spending for 2017 was $54 above spending in 2016 as shoppers around the country spent an average of $983 on gifts.\u00a0With this high price tag, the average consumer spends the first few months of the new year trying to find the extra finances to pay their holiday bills.<\/p>\n

To get a head start on saving for the holidays, experts recommend setting up a separate savings account to monitor their savings contributions closely and reach financial goals easier. Setting up a secondary\u00a0savings account<\/a>\u00a0allows customers to automate savings contributions and makes it easier to meet a savings target.<\/p>\n

Financial experts at Community Bank N.A. agree that the holiday season budget should not only be thought about at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost consumers are not even thinking about next year,” said Community Bank N.A. Chittenango Branch Manager Roberta Button. “However, if they start saving now for next Christmas, they won\u2019t have to scramble to pay their bills, helping take the stress out of the holidays.”<\/p>\n

One way to get your holiday savings goals on track is to set up a separate deposit account solely dedicated to your holiday budget and create payroll auto transfer directly to the account. This method offers customers fewer financial worries during the holiday season by helping them set a savings goal months in advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a separate deposit account for holiday gift costs helps customers avoid becoming burdened with credit card bills come January,\u201d Button said. \u201cCommunity Bank N.A. offers Christmas Clubs, a deposit account that customers contribute to throughout the year with a payout in October, to aid customers\u2019 saving ventures. This takes a separate savings one step further by removing the temptation to dip into your savings before the holidays hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

To set your savings goal for the 2018 holiday season,\u00a0Button\u00a0recommends\u00a0reviewing this past year\u2019s holiday expenditures. This will give a ballpark estimate on costs for the upcoming year. Divide that number by the number of weeks left until the holidays to set weekly savings goals and review progress along the way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too early to start saving and make the 2018 holiday season your easiest one yet. Projecting holiday expenses and opening a holiday savings account can make it easier to manage finances in advance of the shopping season \u2014 and may even prevent a\u00a0holiday debt hangover<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information on Christmas Club or other products and services that Community Bank N.A. offers, visit\u00a0cbnanews.com<\/a>\u00a0or stop into your local Community Bank N.A. branch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Never too Early to Start Saving for the 2018 Holiday Season The holidays have come and gone, but it\u2019s never too early to start saving for next year\u2019s holiday season. According to American Research Group Inc., planned gift spending for 2017 was $54 above spending in 2016 as shoppers around the country spent an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}