"Money is of value for what it buys, and in love it buys time, place, intimacy, comfort, and a private corner alone." -Mae West

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." -Unknown

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." -Peter Drucker

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax. " -Albert Einstein

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Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill, but don’t let goodwill override your common sense. Too many people overspend at this time of the year.

To make it through the festive season without going into debt, we offer the following survival tips:

• Be organized. Work out your budget and what you can afford to spend on Christmas. Make a list of the people for whom you are buying gifts and, if possible, decide in advance exactly what you want to buy or the amount you can afford to spend. Stick to your list and you won’t blow your budget.

• Check sale catalogues for the best price (but don’t use up petrol driving over the other side of town to get it). This way you will less likely to fall for ‘special offers’.

• Pay cash or EFTPOS; avoid buying on credit. Overspending at Christmas could mean you could be unable to meet your debts in the New Year. If your credit cards are too much of a temptation to blow your budget, hide them or cut them up. Don’t use store credit, as interest rates are high.

• Don’t promise gifts that you cannot afford. None of us likes to disappoint our loved ones, particularly our children. However, even children need to understand the limitations of the family budget. If necessary, explain that the school year follows shortly afterwards, and you will need to have money for their clothes, uniforms, shoes, books and school fees. Don’t go into debt to match the amount that other people spend on gifts; real friends will understand your limitations.

• Don’t fall for ‘special offers’. Retail stores rely on the ‘psychology of shopping’ to entice you to buy on impulse. Be guided by your head, not your heart, and don’t be tempted by ‘sale’ bins, ‘special prices’, and so on. Stick to your list and budget.

• Improvise. If you really cannot afford to buy gifts, your family and friends will understand. It's the thought that counts, so think of other ways you can give. Home-made cakes, biscuits or preserves, a cutting or a bunch of flowers from your garden, will be treasured just as much as, or more than, a store-bought gift. Make an attractive booklet of 'coupons', which promise a variety of deeds such as babysitting, running errands, weeding, dog-walking, and so on.

If you do find that you have overspent this year, make sure that you don’t repeat that mistake next year.

• Save regularly during the year. Putting a regular amount each week into your bank account, or placing your spare change in a jar each night, will ensure that a few hundred dollars will accumulate by December. Thus you will already have covered a substantial part of your Christmas expense.

• Plan ahead for next year. Shop early. Buy your Christmas cards, gift wrap, birthday and other gifts for 2003 at the New Year sales, and lay-by them. You can pay them off a little at a time and no interest will be charged.

Under current laws, women in a divorce are often disadvantaged in property settlements, either because a superannuation entitlement has been ignored or because, even in cases where it is taken into account, the amount has been undervalued.

From December 28, 2002, however, new laws will treat superannuation as part of the property of the parties to a marriage. The Family Court and federal magistrates courts will have the power to make an order to split superannuation entitlements, or allow couples to do it by agreement.

In summary, the major changes are:

• For the first time, superannuation will be treated as property of parties to a marriage; currently it is treated as a ‘resource’ or ‘future expectation’.

• Separating married couples will be able to split a spouse member’s superannuation entitlement by agreement or court order.

• The split may be in any proportions, so parties will have flexibility to settle on a mix of super and other property combine.

• A non-member spouse will be able to obtain information about the spouse member’s entitlements.

• Trustees of superannuation funds will be bound by the parties’ agreements or court orders.

SOURCE: Michael Taussig, QC, co-author of Super Splitting on Marriage Breakdown (CCH Australia), as quoted in The Age, 23/11/02.

(Note: These new laws do not cover de facto or same-sex couples.)

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information on this newsletter is accurate. However, the information is not intended as professional advice and the authors shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this newsletter.

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Copyright 2002 Sheila Freeman Consulting