Financial News Features

Parents helped adult children at their own expense due to the pandemic, according to Debt.com.

“With inflation up 5.4% from last year, consumers are entering one of the priciest holiday seasons during a time when most of them can’t afford it,” said Howard Dvorkin, CPA, chairman of Debt.com. “The pandemic caused many people to stretch their finances, and this holiday season will ask them to pull even further.”Fortunately, there are things you can do to tackle the high prices and keep inflation from busting your holiday shopping budget.

Fortunately, more people are tuning in to their finances and thinking more strategically about reaching their goals. According to the Debt.com 2021 Budgeting Survey, 80% of Americans say they have a budget—which is an improvement from just 68% two years ago.

If you can go to a restaurant, you can come to work. That’s been my mantra as the pandemic thankfully fades and booster shots start arriving. Remote work has its place and has shortcomings.

If you can afford to, divert some of your money into a “play” account that can keep you entertained while the rest of your money does the boring work of growing, says Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and chairman of Debt.com. “Once you put the bulk of your portfolio into diversified funds, you can take a small percentage of your money to play around with individual names.”

At the height of the pandemic last year, Debt.com polled more than 1,000 Americans and learned that 46 percent had medical debt. More than half of those were in collections.