Money and Stuff

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Ours is a multicultural and multi-religious society, but there’s something to the holiday season that goes beyond origin or creed. It was a historical, biological imperative that humans, in the deep of winter, recluded themselves from the cold, and families and whole villages lived in very close quarters for months at a time. It makes sense that, in the worst of it, the wiser leaders of those communities strove to create some type of festive occasion: it gave people something different and new to work for, and the festivities were a reward in themselves.

This is why in many religions there are celebrations in the deep of winter. When you add this to the fact that we live in a consuming society, the need for extra cash during those times is almost the same thing, a historical, biological need. Be it in presents, decorations, or the many kinds of tasty food (food is a huge thing for the holidays; check out the pictures on this article!), we will all have extra expenses in the next three months.

Well, I can’t tell you that I am giving free money away, because I am not. But I do want to tell

Sufgayinot for Hannukah.

you about a Credit Union account that to me is a life saver when thinking of the holiday expenses.

The Holiday Club Account is a special savings that has special rules to help you save for those special times of the year. You usually start it in December. You come up with an amount that you want to save to have for the holidays next year, open your club account, set up an automatic transfer to it (be it from a payroll deduction or from one of the your other accounts) and you forget about it. So, say that you want to have $600 next year, as it is what you usually spend on presents for the kids and family. Since you will be saving for a whole year, you only need to save $50 a month (50 x 12 = 600). Voila, the following year, right before Thanksgiving, the Credit Union closes your Club account –you may elect to keep it open for future years- and deposits your $600 plus interest in your savings account.

Personally, I love this account. The extra cash at the end of the year helps me budget my

Modak, offerings to Lord Ganesha
during Pancha Ganapati.

shopping in a way that integrates my normal and holiday budgets without guilt and without breaking the bank, so to speak.

In order to motivate us, this account has a few conditions: it gives more dividends than the Regular Share accounts, but if you think of making a withdrawal or closing it early: you forfeit the dividends accrued on it for the active accrual cycle. To be honest, I think any person can afford to put money into a Holiday Club Account, even the skeptics that work with a very tight budget. So what if you can’t afford to put but $20 a month? That’s almost 250 bucks that you will have for the holidays next years, money that you otherwise wouldn’t have saved.

It works for kids, too. Once they understand that the small sacrifice to their allowance, one

that after a month or two they won’t even notice, will allow them to not sacrifice all their

Yalda treats.

allowances at the end of next year on other people’s presents, they will be interested in trying it out. Of course, this also teaches them about saving. You can open them an account at the Credit Union and get them on the way to proper money management skills, something that is good for life.

To start a Holiday Club for you or your kid(s), download the form from their website, fill it out and sign it and then fax it, mail it, or email a scanned copy to them.

Come Thanksgiving next year, you will be very happy you this. Trust me.