Credit problems after Christmas and New Year? Fix it with wealth advisor Reggie Tolbert

ORLANDO, Fla. – It happens. Without proper planning, year-end holidays like Christmas and New Year can sneak up on you and leave a dent in your credit score that can take months to polish and even longer to shine.

This week on Black Men Sundays, host Corie Murray is interviewing Reggie Tolbert – a wealth management consultant RF Tolbert Wealth Managementa financial services company of its namesake – to learn what should be done throughout the year to spend big on the holidays while mitigating that collateral damage.

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“One of the things about starting over – a New Year’s resolution – is almost like starting again from ground zero. Many of us hit the gym early in the year, we start from ground zero, we develop a plan. Well, your financial ground zero is the same. You have to come up with a budget and a plan for the beginning of the year,” Tolbert said.

Once a budget is set, Tolbert suggests that you then determine which items in that budget are your priorities, especially if you’ve learned the hard way to avoid debt entirely after Christmas.

“You might want to readjust your annual budget to make up for more money to pay off that debt from Christmas, get that payment, get your credit back into line in the first 90 days, and then just stay disciplined throughout the year. ‘ Tolbert said. “One way to avoid those high Christmas bills is through so-called Christmas clubs. You can open a Christmas Club account early in the year, set aside some money from your normal expenses, and then (in) October, November have a lump sum of cash where you can use that money for Christmas shopping.”

As Tolbert Murray said, the name of the game here is discipline, a common virtue when wealth management is the talk of Black Men Sundays.

For many, discipline begins with some kind of system. For credit card payments, Tolbert suggested either paying them off in stages or doing it all at once to avoid interest and monthly minimum payments.

“There are two ways to do that. You can take it down systematically, month by month, you can commit more money to the payoff and hopefully get it off in three to six months, or you can just bite the bullet at the beginning of the year and say, ‘Hey, I’m getting one Take a lump sum from a savings account, some money I set aside, tap it out, pay that off, and then put more on top of the savings because if you have a credit card, you’re probably paying anywhere from 13% to 29% interest up this card, so you should pay that back ASAP,” Tolbert said.

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