Image from GMA News
Oh Christmas bonus! I think many are anticipating of getting that amount in the next few months. And of course, we cannot deny that as early as now we are already planning on what to do with it. This would also be me a few years back.
I was asked before in a quick interview whether it would be ideal to spend your Christmas Bonus for buying gifts this coming holiday. Well, if you are going to ask the old me, then I would definitely say yes. However today, I would already have a different answer for that one.
There’s no hard rule on what to do with your bonus. After all, this is just once a year. Plus, you deserve this. This spells extra money. The thought of having that “extra” amount is also synonymous to how easily we spend it. Every time we get something apart from our salary, we can easily dish this out and buy things in our head. Oftentimes we allocate this bonus for gift buying.
Again, there’s nothing wrong if you spend it that way. However, I would want you to look on another perspective. And this is making the most of this “once a year reward”. How about you stretch the longevity of this bonus and not use it all in one day? Perhaps, make this bonus last or make it work for you in the next few months or years. How about if we use this for our long term benefit?
Hence, here are some suggestions you might want to consider.
Suggestion 1: Budget it out. It would be best to budget your bonus and know where the money will go. If you have plans to buy gifts out of the bonus, do get a small percentage out of it and never the entire amount. You might want to use 20% of it for the food and gifts. Or use enough percentage for those holiday expenses.
Suggestion 2: Save it. If you still haven’t built your emergency fund, it would be ideal to use your bonus to beef this up. An emergency fund is a savings fund that is worth three to six times your salary. This serves as your money buffer for sudden and unexpected expenses.
Suggestion 3: Pay debt. You still might have outstanding balances hence it would be ideal that you use another percentage to pay debts. You don’t have to pour everything in order to pay it. As a matter of fact, you can still pay debts while saving. Just make sure you allocate a few pesos and slowly pay your balances.
Suggestion 4: Invest. If you have completed your emergency fund already and got some manageable debt, perhaps it would be ideal to invest. Put your money in something that can last and will have a great impact to your future. If you are relatively new, invest in knowledge first and get the ropes of investing. You can start with insurance, mutual funds and go to stocks. You can always ask experts and even go to your bank on how to proceed with such investments and the right one for you.
Suggestion 5: Share. It is always rewarding to share our blessings. Do not forget to give back to your church and local community. Give gifts that would matter to others. Host a charitable event, do a feeding program in another community, host a party in a local day care and more.
And of course do not forget to get a few percentage for you to enjoy. After all you worked hard for this one hence you might want to spoil yourself just a little. You deserve the money and you have been working for a year. These are but suggestions on how you can spend your bonus. Of course if you no longer have debt, you can skip that part and store more for the other suggestions. Just make sure that you will have an equal balance and a budget that will make your bonus last.
P.S To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge, did you deposit the next amount yet?
P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.
P.P.P.S I am also sharing my stock market secrets and information via these resources.