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The Wisconsin State Journal Bob Van Enkenvoort column

By Bob Van Enkenvoort, The Wisconsin State Journal on

Published in Senior Living Features

The checks came from the State Bank of De Pere. Adorned with cardinals, fir trees with strings of lights, and ornaments and other small, furry forest creatures, they were mailed in December right before Christmas. The $12.50 was embossed in big red letters. It was something to behold.

For several years when I was a boy, my grandma funded Christmas Club accounts for me and my two sisters. The quarter dollar a week that went into the fund for the first 50 weeks of the year yielded a windfall of $12.50 that we could use to buy Christmas presents for family members.

I remember gazing lovingly at that check. I was Rockefeller. I was Richie Rich. If only for a fleeting moment before the clanging cash registers at the shopping center (no such thing as malls back then) sucked up my short-lived wealth.

Buying presents was a good lesson at the time that you can also get joy from giving. And believe me, it took a pretty bright spotlight to cut through the ever-present fog caused by a toy fixation that started annually when Sears mailed Christmas catalogs.

I, too, had the chance to save for Christmas. Marine Bank in Neenah handed out folders with slots where quarters could be added each week of the year. But the lure of the penny candy counter at a local drug store had me robbing Peter to feed Paul. By the end of the year, the folder consisted of just a few coins.

Maybe banks in the 1930s had it right.

When Monona State Bank moved into its branch at 1965 Atwood Ave., employees found a cache of small lockboxes belonging to customers of the former Commercial National Bank in the basement. Only the bank had the key.

"The kids would put in their pennies and nickels and that way they couldn't access it and they would bring it to the bank," said Ben Udell, senior vice president of consumer banking for Monona State Bank.

Christmas clubs have lessened in popularity, Udell said. People don't like locking in their money for little interest. Now, he said, it is very easy for customers to open and move money into special savings accounts for designated purposes such as Christmas or vacation using online banking.

"Take part of your paycheck or part of your income, put it toward what you know you're going to use," he said. "And with all the tools available with online transfers and automatic transfers, they can go in and see the growth that happens over time. At the end of the year, they can draw that account down to zero and start over again."

It makes sense. A Gallup poll in November found Americans will spend this year on average $781 on Christmas gifts, up from $704 last November.

 

And BMO Harris noted in a survey earlier this week that 31 percent say that in January they often regret how much they've spent.

Many finance gift buying with credit cards. And many end up waiting for tax returns to pay off Christmas debt, which -- month by month -- adds interest charges to credit card balances. Website www.creditcards.com said the average U.S. credit card interest rate was 14.92 percent Friday. At that rate, $30 is added to your total after three months.

Many options exist to help people regularly save, Udell said. "It doesn't take a lot of money. It takes setting it up and sticking with the plan."

Most of us know we should save -- for Christmas, a rainy day and retirement. We know that just like we should eat right, exercise and floss regularly. But it isn't what you know, it's what you do with what you know.

"We know Christmas is coming every year," Udell said. "And, yet, we don't actively save for it."

And for many, including me some years, the debt is an unwelcome ghost of Christmas past.

$12.50 seems paltry now but was at the time like a fortune and shows that saving even a little bit can make a difference over time. As we get into the season of making resolutions, it seems as good of one as any to add to the list.

(c)2014 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

Visit The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) at www.wisconsinstatejournal.com

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(c) The Wisconsin State Journal

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