Tag: General News

By Tiffany Curtis | NerdWallet

Retailers once again have begun their bid for consumers’ attention with big sales early in fall, such as what amounts to a second Amazon Prime Day sale. A longer holiday shopping season lets you spread out expenses, but it also could lead to overspending.

Danetha Doe, founder of financial education company Money & Mimosas, said in an email, “It’s easy to go into unplanned debt during this time because many of us show love to those we care about by buying gifts or by spending money on travel to be with loved ones.”

NerdWallet’s 2023 holiday shopping report bears that out: 52% of Americans incurred credit card debt from holiday shopping last year, and 31% of them still have lingering balances. Survey results also show that nearly 2 in 5 2023 holiday shoppers (39%) feel pressure to spend more on buying gifts than they’re comfortable spending this year, and 12% of 2023 holiday shoppers say they will likely use some of their emergency savings to buy gifts.

Whether you’re dealing with debt or trying to avoid it, here are some strategies that can help.

1. Create a spending plan

Take a good look at your finances before you do any spending, and figure out how much you can afford to put toward gifts and other costs. That can help you avoid a financial shock later.

“Developing a spending plan before you enter the holidays will help you avoid waking up on New Year’s Day with a financial hangover,” Doe said. “Your plan could include a list of all of the people you wish to buy a gift for and/or your estimated travel costs if you are visiting loved ones.”

2. Set financial boundaries

A financial boundary is a limit that you set to protect your money. Boundaries can be especially helpful during the holidays as you navigate the pressure to spend.

“Your financial boundaries may mean that you won’t participate in gift-giving because your money has other priorities,” Doe said. “Perhaps you’re saving up for a home, paying down debt or starting a business.”

Aim to set boundaries before getting into the thick of holiday shopping. For example, you might set a rule of waiting at least a day before completing an online purchase.

“The key to sticking to your financial boundaries is mindfulness,” certified financial therapist Celia Hughes said in an email. She suggested holding items in your online shopping cart for at least 24 hours. “Come back and see if you still want to make the purchase.”

“Slowing down decision-making supports holding down your boundaries,” Hughes said. “If you’re shopping in a store, take pictures of what you want to buy and then go home and sleep on it.”

3. Spend time rather than money

Money is a source of stress for many people during the holidays. Prioritizing experiences and your relationships can lift worry from you, and your family and friends, by shifting the focus away from spending.

“My advice to everyone, even if you are in a financially healthy place, is to focus your holidays on experiences and relationships,” Hughes said. “It may feel like a leap to move away from extreme consumerism, but when your loved ones remember time together and time with you, it will be easier for that to become the norm.”

4. Opt for low-cost gift-giving

Choosing to focus on lower-cost gifts is another way to capture the festive spirit without deepening debt or adding financial stress.

“For example, you could exchange handwritten letters of appreciation to each other rather than buying each other gifts,” Doe said. “If you’re feeling artsy, you could offer a DIY gift such as a candle, a hand-drawn card, an air freshener made with fresh spices placed in a Mason jar, ornaments, a candle holder or homemade jam.”

And if you still want to experience some holiday shopping, Hughes suggests: “Consider a gift exchange, where each person secretly draws the name of another family member, and sets a low spend amount, with the task of finding something that reminds you of your favorite thing about that person.”

5. Use cash

Using cash over cards may help you to be more mindful of your spending — especially during sales.

When you use a credit card, Doe said, “It is so easy to swipe it and forget it, but if you have to pull out the cash, you will be less likely to impulsively spend.”

6. Make a debt paydown plan

As your spending plan and boundaries help you keep holiday costs down, think about pushing those savings into debt paydown to give yourself the gift of lower balances.

If you need inspiration to stick with it, try the debt snowball method. Focus that extra money on your smallest debt first (still pay at least the minimums on your other debts). Because you’re starting small, you’ll have a shorter time until payoff. When that debt is paid off, turn to the next-biggest.

Or if you’re worried about interest costs, try the debt avalanche method. With this strategy, you focus on the debt with the highest interest rate first.

Also, debt consolidation can help by combining multiple debts into one payment — ideally with a lower interest rate. If you have good credit, you could look into a 0% interest balance transfer credit card or a debt consolidation loan.

 

The article Head Into Shopping Season Ready to Manage Spending and Debt originally appeared on NerdWallet.

SANTA CLARA — The problem for Randy Gregory has never been playing on the edge in a football sense.

Virtually everyone agrees he is an explosive, twitchy athlete who at 6-foot-5 and 242 pounds was born to rush the passer.

Living on the edge in an everyday sense has been more of a problem, although Gregory has worked to sort out myriad issues which have stalled his ascension to being the kind of player his skillset suggests.

Acquired by the 49ers at virtually no risk from the Denver Broncos late last week, Gregory went through his first practice with his new team Wednesday and was asked if he was ready to be an immediate contributor Sunday against the host Cleveland Browns.

“I don’t doubt it, but it’s not up to me,” Gregory said. “It’s practice, and the rest of the week will tell what I’m able to do out there.”

Signed as the heir apparent to Von Miller by the Broncos before the 2022 season, Gregory wound up playing in 10 of 21 games because of knee and shoulder injuries. The Broncos, under new coach Sean Payton, dealt him and a seventh-round draft pick to the 49ers in exchange for a sixth-round pick.

Not only that, but Denver will pay more than $10 million in salary for the rest of the season with the 49ers on the hook for only a prorated portion of the veteran minimum. Salaries of $13.745 million in 2024 and $12.745 million in 2025-26 are not guaranteed.

In Denver, they’re calling it the worst free agent signing in franchise history.

Gregory, who at one point missed 52 of 96 games on four suspensions for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, has steered clear of trouble since October 2020. But with the Broncos floundering on defense — Gregory didn’t register a tackle in a 70-20 loss to Miami in Week 3 — they opted to move on.

“You know how the NFL goes. I’d been there for two years, I had two new staffs,” Gregory said. “They’re looking to rebuild, get some new leadership. Ultimately I wasn’t part of that plan.”

As far as his personal life, Gregory, 30, believes he is in a good place. He’s married with children aged 7 and 4, as well as a 6-month-old baby.

“I have everything where it needs to be,” Gregory said. “Mentally, if I’m in order in that aspect I’m pretty good. My family life is pretty good right now. Kids are happy, fed. I have a newborn so I’m little bit worried about that. I want to be home with him, but I understand what’s at stake but I’m a big boy and I’ve got a job to take care of.”

Randy Gregory (No. 5) getting in work on first day of #49ers practice. pic.twitter.com/QSRJKtdhaE

— Jerry McDonald (@Jerrymcd) October 11, 2023

In a 2021 interview with The Athletic, Gregory detailed a past that included using marijuana and psychedelics in his teens while still being a standout at Hamilton Southeastern High in Fishers, Indiana. He began failing drug tests in college at Nebraska following two years in junior college at Arizona Western.

Although dominant at Nebraska, teams dug into his background and he went from a potential top-10 pick to a second-rounder by Dallas. There were bouts with with social anxiety disorder and losing large sums of money at casinos.

Gregory managed to rebuild his career in 2020 and 2021 in Dallas with 9 1/2 sacks and was a disruptive presence in a 2021 playoff loss to the 49ers, earning a big contract in Denver.

Through it all, Gregory was never considered a disruptive presence in the locker room.

“Randy was a great teammate, never gave anybody any problems,” said 49ers cornerback Anthony Brown, a teammate in Dallas. “Never caused any commotion. Gave his all on the field and I’m glad we have him here.”

Dallas owner Jerry Jones told The Athletic: “There is a warmth to Gregory. He’s engaging and thoughtful. He smiles almost all the time. “He’s one of the most popular players we’ve had on the Cowboys. Everybody roots for him.”

Coach Kyle Shanahan said “guys close to him and guys that I know vouch for him” and respected locker room leaders Trent Williams and Arik Armstead gave the acquisition an enthusiastic thumbs-up last week.

Gregory went home to Denver to for the weekend and watched the 49ers’ 42-10 win over his former team with interest.

“I have a lot of guys I care about on that team in Dallas and staff I care about,” Gregory said. “Being able to sit there and watch it unfold, being a rivalry game, was fun. I spent time there, but I’m on a new team an excited to get that win.”

Gregory realized instantly his old team was in deep trouble against his new one when the 49ers got the ball and drove 75 yards for a touchdown to open the game.

“Me and my wife were talking about it, thinking the Cowboys look a little spooked,” Gregory said. “That’s not bulletin board material, but it speaks to the level of intensity we came out with and carried out throughout the course of the game.”

Gregory’s previous transgressions have invited skeptics, which he understands but hopes to win over through his play.

“The big thing for me is trying to prove people wrong and put the NFL back on notice, doing the things I can do well and end up being a good teammate,” Gregory said.

The hope for the 49ers is Gregory can add another potential rusher off the edge to complement Bosa, who has 1 1/2 sacks through three games but according to ProFootballFocus.com is among league leaders among edge rushers in pressures with 27.

Second-year player Drake Jackson has no sacks since getting three in the opener and Clelin Ferrell as expected has shown an ability to set the edge but has no sacks as a pass rusher.

Eugene Hernandez wants to make clear he wasn’t calling his bookie when caught on camera talking on his phone at the 49ers game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. And he wasn’t calling out of work either.

In the moment that became a meme which went viral on social media almost instantly during the 49ers 42-10 blowout of his Dallas Cowboys, the costume clad Hernandez answered a call from a friend who wanted to tell him they had seen him on TV. The photo has been posted with captions including  “Mom, can you pick me up?” and “Yeah, so about that money I told you to bet on the Cowboys for me.” A video of Hernandez was even shared on ESPN’s Tik Tok account, garnering over 80,000 likes.

But Hernandez, a Vacaville firefighter who lives in Lodi, has taken the attention and the jokes at his team’s expense in stride, immediately making memes of his own and starting an instagram account under the handle @Cowboysphoneguy to keep the jokes coming. He said his colleagues at the fire department have been ruthless since he went viral, but the banter has still been fun.

Hernandez said he went to the game at Levi Stadium — hardly a friendly environment for Cowboys fans — with his wife, as well as with his father-in-law and his wife.

“I was one of few Cowboys fans within that area,” he said.

The family have made a point to go to Cowboys vs Niners games over the years, he said, even driving to witness a home Cowboys loss to San Fransisco in Dallas.

“That was a very long 24-hour ride back,” he said.

But the atmosphere at the games, Hernandez said, is incredible.

“Running into other Cowboys fans is great,” he said. “Hooping and hollering, high-fiving each other, the camaraderie is awesome.”

President of the Vacaville Firefighter’s Association Matt Moreno said he was watching the game with his wife, and initially didn’t notice Hernandez because of the elaborate costume he was wearing. Once he did, he took a photo of the TV and sent it to Hernandez, as many others did in the moment.

Moreno said he instantly predicted that this moment would become a meme, and it was taking off online before the game was even over.

“I will say that he couldn’t take this thing any better,” Moreno said. “He couldn’t be a better sport.”

Moreno himself is a Dolphins fan, but many Vacaville firefighters are obviously 49ers fans.

“When your team gets beat by the Niners, when you come to work it’s pretty ruthless,” he said.

But sports banter and fantasy football, says Moreno, give crews something positive to focus on outside of their difficult job.

“It makes everything that we’re seeing and doing,” he said, “it helps make it kind of go away.”

Hernandez became a Cowboys fan because of his grandmother, who moved to Lodi from Texas and raised him as a Dallas fan.

He said he grew up without a lot of advantages, and had lots of coaches and teachers who helped him throughout high school as he worked not to go down a dark path. While he was in college, he said, his father went into liver failure and he was forced to attempt CPR until paramedics arrived. Later, he had to carry his grandmother out of their house to wait for paramedics after she was wounded in an oil fire.

Those experiences were formative for him, says Hernandez.

I reassessed my career,” he said. “Knowing that I wanted to do something with the community and give back, because the community gave so much to me, I found the calling to become a firefighter.”

Moreno said he is uplifted by the chance to work with Hernandez.

“He’s that guy that he had a choice in life to be a victim or be victorious,” Moreno said, “and he chose to be a victor.”

Hernandez saw what was going on around him as a young man and decided on a different path, Moreno said. He’s able to relate to a lot of life experiences, he said, which is helpful to have on the force.

“It’s pretty inspiring to work with a guy like that,” Moreno said, “to see what he could have been, and what he is now”

Moreno said Hernandez’s nickname is El Toro, because he puts his head down and works hard like a bull.

The department is a small one as fire departments in the region go, Moreno said, and they have about 90 members on their suppression staff. Most members are local, and the department is best known for its philanthropic work.

That work develops trust in the community, he said. The department has raised nearly $1 million since 2012.

“That’s what I’m most proud about,” he said. “Is that we’re not just out saving lives but we’re affecting lives on and off duty.”

And like his beloved team this week, Hernandez is looking to shake off the loss and stay in stride.

“I just want to let everybody know that we are still ‘Dem Boys,” he said.