1. Take advantage of any company investment matching you can as early as possible. This will help grow your money faster than you can imagine. It’s my biggest regret for the last 20 years. I literally left thousands of dollars on the table.

2. Save your money. Only take on debt if it will get you an asset that will grow (an education with a solid career path, a house.)

3. Build good habits. It’s so much easier than trying to break a bad one. Eat right. Exercise. Take care of your teeth and your knees.

4. Wear sunscreen.

5. Experiences are SO much better than stuff. Travel. See a play. The brands you buy won’t make you a more interesting person. The cool stuff you’ve done will.

6. Acknowledge your privileges and use them to give back to people who are not so fortunate.

And, most importantly, Don’t be a D*ck. Be as good and kind a person as you can be.

This is an amazing idea!

My LPT for holiday budgeting is to save all my loyalty points (PC Optimum in Canada) to use when they are increased in value on certain weekends leading up to Christmas. Either I use the points to buy the gifts themselves or I use the points to buy groceries and the grocery money to buy gifts.

I’ve managed to give my kids a Nintendo Switch, PS4 and 2 tablets over the years by doing this religiously! Most years I can save $400-$500 worth of points, which goes a LONG away in the Christmas budget.

I recognize that I have been incredibly privileged to have been able to do this. I once had a friend remark that she couldn’t understand how I always had all this money for toys and stuff. I explained how little cash I actually spend on all of it, and it blew her mind!

Christmas is not worth going into debt over. Kids will love gifts from the Dollar Store as much as they love the expensive stuff!