This week before Christmas, you’ll hear a lot of logical Christmas tips: Drink a lot of water, skip the sugary pop with your drink, and have a healthy snack before all those cookies. Gee – thanks – but I don’t know anyone who actually does that.

Hopefully, here are four things that might be more practical:

Speed kills. That’s not just a traffic rule, it also applies to your Christmas shopping. The faster you want to do it, or the later you leave it, the more it’ll cost you when you overpay just to get it over with. If you’re close to any stores, change your lunch hour one or two days this week to go at 10 or 11 AM, instead of noon, or trying to get into stores when the rest of the Okanagan is going at the same time. Even better is to take a morning off and do it then. Take a list, take the cash and have a plan.

If you’re a grandparent, your demographics have a reputation of buying too many gifts for the grandkids. Of course, you mean well, but stop a second and think of the unintended consequences: You’re setting an impossible expectation and template down the road for the parents, and you’re probably wasting a bunch of money. Lots of studies show that small kids play with the latest toy for less than half an hour. After that, they go back to the simple stuff, like that huge empty box, all that string, or the blankets to make a fort.

For us adults, I saw a wonderful Facebook picture last week. What lots of us really want is financial security, a raise, a stronger sense of purpose and a long, undisturbed nap. If you didn’t draw names, don’t kill yourself trying to buy a dozen presents. Just find a way to let us have a nap a couple of days in a row…

And lastly, I hope you remember something for the entire next year: For at least the first six years of your life you had an unshakable belief in Santa Claus. Could you find that same faith again in yourself for just a year to turn your finances around?

George Boelcke – Money Tools & Rules book – yourmoneybook.com