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Afraid of overspending this holiday season? Here are some last-minute shopping tips

A tip to prevent overspending during last minute shopping is to keep emotions out of gift buying and offer to spend quality time together instead.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Christmas is only a few days away, which means for last-minute holiday shoppers it's crunch time. 

Before you had to the store, Cameron McCarty, the president of Vivid Tax Services shared you need to make a plan. 

"When it comes to last-minute shopping you want to be sure you're on a budget," McCarty said.

McCarty noted if people are not adhering to a budget it could lead to overspending.

According to Annie Brandt, an Iowa Market Manager for Bank of America, 45% of people admit to overspending during the holidays.

To stop this from happening, McCarty suggested making a list of people and the items you want to buy for them, and try sticking to it. 

"Why not look at putting a dollar limit per individual you want to buy for," McCarty said. "And instead of buying things people may want, why don't you look at some things they may need."

Another tip he suggested to prevent overspending during last-minute shopping is to keep emotions out of gift buying, and present the option of spending quality time together as a gift. 

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The financial professional also mentioned since some families will be deciding to have smaller Christmas gatherings and not travel, the money you would have spent, but are now saving, should be invested back into yourself. 

"Put that [money] into savings," McCarty said. "Again, you don't know what's going to happen. I do encourage people to put away three to six months of their income inside of their savings."

"Now again that may be tough to do, but this year should prove to every single person that you need to save money."  "

McCarty also said for families with children, instead of going the traditional gift-giving route, another idea is giving 529 plans.

The plans can be used to help you save for your children's college and investing in one can be used as a tax deduction. 

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