Hello, my name is Jesse Meekam with another episode of the Jesse Meekam show,

and I'm here each week to obsess out loud about spending purposefully, saving aspirationally,

giving, giving joyfully, which is what you hopefully experienced with this holiday season.

I like many others, love the holidays, love being able to spend time with my kids, with Julie,

love being able to delight with what I've decided

that person needs more than anything in the world.

But what I don't love about the holidays is the fact that most, at least Americans,

end the holidays with more debt.

They actually, I think a tenth of them, have debt from more than a year ago,

and about a third have debt still from the prior holiday situation.

And it does not have to be this way.

It doesn't have to be this way at all.

It is a shame to have all of this

delight, all of this joy attached to the holidays, and then to have also tagging along like an

annoying little brother, worry. Worry about how you're going to spend, how you're going to afford,

how you're going to do this or that thing. Should we do this? Should we not?

And I am all for feeling the tradeoff of deciding what your money is meant to do, what jobs it is supposed to do.

But what I am not for is worry creeping in on Christmas morning and, yeah, taking a big

old seat on the sofa and crowding out joy and being loud and

obnoxious about it. I wish it were loud and obnoxious. Honestly worry is much more subtle.

It's quieter. It just kind of hangs around. You don't say it out loud, but you hear the little

voice inside your head.

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