MONEY Avoid a festive financial hangover

MONEY WORRIES Irregular child-maintenance payments by a spouse can cause huge financial and emotional stress.

Avoid a festive financial hangover


Time to budget for Christmas and take care of end-of-year business

Money matters
Brid Conroy

I love this time of year. As the nights draw in, the festive lights begin to twinkle around Mayo. It’s cold, and I can’t wait to wrap myself up in the warmth and frivolity that is Christmas. However, a recent survey by Deloitte on Christmas spending this year is predicting the average spend per household will be €943. Man, I thought, don’t get too cosy, it’s time to get focusing on finance matters and the year that’s coming – particularly in light of last week’s Budget and the unsettled economic outlook.
Christmas sense
My advice for your personal finances this Christmas is simple: Set yourself a budget for this year’s festive spending and stick to it. I’ve seen the damage that can be done with debit and credit cards – and it’s lethal.
Interestingly and encouragingly, the same Deloitte survey said the number one gift we’d like to get this year is a book. Second is cash, third is a gift voucher and the fourth is clothes. At last we’re all getting some sense.

End-of-year business tasks
If you’re in business of course, it’s time to collect from those that owe you money, because come January you won’t have a chance in hell. If you don’t have one already, I suggest you keep a lever arch file of all your unpaid invoices. Prepare and update weekly a list of ‘who owe me money’. Review and chase up the people on this list every week, every day if necessary. A handy hint in debt collection is to ask your debtors “When can I expect payment of that invoice?”
If you haven’t filed your tax return yet, well you’re late now. The penalty for this is 5 per cent on top of your tax bill and 10 per cent if it is still not filed by January 2012. If you have had difficulty paying your tax bill this year, the best thing you can do is contact the Revenue and arrange an instalment plan that you can afford to pay. They will charge you interest of course in the region of 8 per cent and date it back to the preliminary tax due date.

Start-up funding
Still got that great business idea and really want to go for it next year? An interesting organisation to get in contact with is First-Step Microfinance at www.first-step.ie. They provide loans of up to €25,000 to start up or expanding new businesses who cannot access funding, or sufficient funding, from other sources. First-Step is a private not-for-profit company funded by Enterprise Ireland through the EU Seed and Venture Capital Fund and the Social Finance Foundation. And in the first quarter of 2012, the Government will have in place, a Micro Finance Loan Fund to generate up to €100 million in additional micro-enterprise lending.

Savings
For those with money on deposit, the rates have improved of late. Bank of Ireland have a new fully accessible Deposit account paying 3 per cent Annual rate before Dirt is deducted and a bonus of 1 per cent if the funds are not touched in the first year. KBC bank have a new 14 month fixed term deposit that allows a 25 per cent withdrawal for the Christmas spending and still pays 4.29 per cent Annual rate before Dirt or 5 per cent after Dirt for the whole 14 months.
So that’s it folks for 2011. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas, just don’t go too mad on the money front, there’s great things ahead for 2012.

Brid Conroy FCCA is a Chartered Certified Accountant with a practice in Louisburgh. She works on improving personal finances and the profitability of small and medium-sized businesses. To contact Brid, call 098 66870 or theoldschool@iolfree.ie.