Working On Getting It All Back

Even if one has the best of intentions, Christmas can often times be a very expensive time of the year if you are in a place in the world that celebrates the holiday. Needless to say, we want to make the time extra special for the ones we love, and that means money.

I would say that the wife and I probably spent around $600-$700 on Christmas this year. We may have spent more had we hosted the family Christmas get together. But it was not our turn. We did Thanksgiving. That would have just meant we would have had to spend more on booze and food.

Our turn will be next year, though, to be fair.

But we still shelled out money for the nieces and nephews, and the grand-nephew, my sister and brother in law, my mother, and of course my wife, and whatever she shelled out for me.

I bought a few things for my co-workers at work and so did the wife.

As we traditionally do, my wife and I will take mom to the casino for New Year's Eve, and I have already allotted $400 for this little excursion.

All of this money needs to be recouped. And after all is said and done that is typically may aim. To recoup it.

It is not like any of this kills us. We budget for this sort of thing, of course. But the bottom line for me is that when I spend large amounts of money on anything, my next step is usually to find any way possible to get it back. All of it. Or at least a large portion of it.

So, how do I do it? The methods are many-fold.

I turn to my stock portfolio and I scan my holdings to see what, if any, stocks I can sell covered calls on and collect premiums. This is probably the easiest method for me since I own a lot of stocks and can write enough contracts to make my money back and then some.

I also look for opportunities within my stock portfolio to increase holdings in certain high yield ETF and REIT investments. If I can increase dividends, this recoups some of the money we spent for the holidays.

And these days, because I happen to be invested in crypto, I do two things in this area. One, find ways to increase what I can earn. And two, put more of what I already hold into an account like Celcius to earn interest and earn in-kind coins on the money I have there.

The concept of all of this is pretty simple, and it's a concept I use really when it comes to recouping any spending I might be doing. Whether it is going on a vacation, taking a gambling trip, or paying for the holidays.

I had a rich uncle once. Actually, it was my mother's uncle. But he was still an uncle. His name was Archie Meinerz and he was a millionaire many times over. I won't get into the story as to how he got there. That's for another day. But I will tell you what he told me once about money, and about spending.

"Use other people's money."

The concept, for him, was that if you have money, you can use it as leverage to get what you want and pay for what you need in this world. Money makes money. If you have money, it can make money for you.

So why touch the principal if you do not have to?

Of course, to pay for what I wanted to buy for Christmas and what we will use for our New Year's Eve gambling night will come from upfront funds. But now the work is clear. I will use what money we have currently invested to get it all back, and probably then some.

I have been doing this for years, and it is a concept and an idea that has paid me handsomely for doing it this way.

Was Christmas expensive for you, and how will it go for you in "paying" for it all? More hours at work? Hunkering down to reduce expenses for the next month or two?

Or will you use similar strategies to get it all back?

Lead image courtesy of Pixabay, user Clker-Free-Vector-Images. Moon Silhouettes Santa Claus - Free vector graphic on Pixabay