How Families Are Budgeting for This Year's Holiday Spending
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Here's your Money Briefing for Monday, December 20th. I'm Trina Neri for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whalen. Holidays are often a time to connect with family and friends, reflect on the year behind you, and set some new goals for the year ahead. But this year, with prices for everything from groceries to gas on the rise, many people are more focused than ever on their budgets.
You see some people who are in good situations planning to spend more this holiday season and other people who are in more challenging situations definitely tightening their belts.
Coming up, our reporter Ann Tergesen will be here to discuss how different families are rethinking their holiday spending.
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The holiday season is here. For a lot of people, it's usually a time to spend a bit more on gifts, parties, and vacations. But a recent poll found that nearly 40 percent of U.S. households indicated they faced serious financial difficulties in recent months, including paying utility bills and credit card debt. So how are families at all budget levels planning out their holiday spending? Here to talk about it is WSJ reporter Ann Tergesen. Hi, Ann.
How are rising prices changing holiday budgets this year?
Thanks for being here.
Sure. Thanks for having me.
First, Anne, it's been a mixed bag of financial ups and downs this past two years. But generally speaking, what's this year been like for American families' personal finances?
Yeah, well, it's really hard to summarize in terms of, you know, there's so many different situations that people are in I think you know we've seen sort of a continuation of what was noted in 2020 which is that some people are experiencing improvements in their financial lives you know whether because they have retained, you know, jobs that have high incomes and maybe their employers are offering them even, you know, higher incomes to ensure that they stay on the job in a tight job market. But other people are in sort of a different situation. You know, maybe they've quit jobs because they either were concerned about COVID or They, you know, felt that they weren't being fulfilled in their jobs and they've taken risks.
And some of those risks have, you know, have paid off and some of them have not. And, you know, there's also been a lot of government stimulus money. Some people have used that to pay down debt and really improve their financial situations. You know, and other people maybe have taken some risks that haven't paid off or have just not been in a situation to improve their finances. So you see things across the gamut and you see some people... who are in good situations planning to spend more this holiday season, and other people who are in more challenging situations definitely tightening their belts.
And you and our personal finance reporter, Veronica Dagger, have spoken to some families with all different financial needs. But there are some common threads between them. Let's go over a few. The holidays often involve extra spending, but not all families have as much room in their budget as usual this year.
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