Are you feeling the pain of not having enough money for holiday spending this year because your retirement income is not what you hoped it would be? There is not much you can do about it now, but you can implement some strategies to painlessly provide enough extra retirement income or holiday spending accounts so next year you can have some for your gift buying. Talk to the pros about serious financial planning advice, but here are some simple solutions you might start now to alleviate next year's pain.
One solution is to set up within your own banking accounts a plan where each month money is transferred automatically to a separate saving account. Having it transferred the same day an automatic deposit is scheduled, like the day social security or pension check is deposited works well. As little as $25 a month will reap $300 that can be used for next years holiday spending. The beauty is you have access to it all year if another emergency pops up and you need fast cash.
Another solution is to sign up for some free paid survey sites. Signing up for paid surveys should be free.
There is no need to spend the money for a sign up fee for survey companies you can easily find on your own. It is best to sign up for four or five sites that will pay you cash or points towards cash. If you get paid a few dollars for each survey, and qualify for several surveys a week your account balances will build so that you could easily have $150-$200 combined to use for holiday spending next year.
A third solution is to find companies that offer a variety of services for advertisers and will provide a combination of surveys, coupons, money saving discount offers. To send flowers on Mothers Day use the service to get your coupon code you get a discount and your account is credited. If you qualify for a survey, your account is credited. Basically you get credit for spending money you already spend. For a non-shopper, it is possible to save up close to $100 in a year. A shopper could earn even more credits.
Believe it or not, there are websites for playing games that pay you with gift certificates when you reach a certain point levels. You can earn points at one level for free play and a higher level if you join. You only have to play three or four times a week for about an hour at a time. A company such as Amazon lets you apply the certificate as a credit to your account, so when the holidays come you have credits saved up.
These simple solutions individually do not create huge amounts of dollars but combined might be able to accrue at least $500 if not more. The pain of not having enough money is now taken care of! A retiree has a lot to adjust to when first living on a fixed income. Having a way to earn some extra retirement income, beyond what comes in each month just might be the buffer needed to build holiday spending accounts.
