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Lots of people loaded up on debt during the holidays , and surprising numbers of them will spend much of 2025 working to pay it off. One survey, by Lending Tree , concluded 36 percent of Americans took on holiday debt, and less than half of them expect to pay it off by the end of March. The good news is that 64 percent of Americans did not start the new year with holiday debt, according to the survey.
Whichever group one is in, January is a good time to adjust expenses and set the stage for a year of better personal finances. It doesn't need to be hard or very time-consuming, and the results are real and measurable. Here are some suggestions: Do you have a streaming service you hardly use? Or pay for premium service on a ride-sharing or delivery app you rarely use? What about memberships to a gym or warehouse club you never visit? Or monthly fees for a storage unit you might be able to do without? What about delivery subscriptions for all sorts of things — meal kits , dog toys, bottled wine and so much more — that might have seemed like a good idea, at first? Recurring expenses eat away at budgets, and sometimes people keep paying them out of habit more than need.
Review those expenses, consider what can be eliminated, see if you can get a better deal on what's left, and then count up the savings. A common saying suggests that those who want to get themselves out of a hole should stop digging, for starters. But with credit card debt, it's like there's also a hose pouring water into the hole, in the form of high interest charges.
So, yes, stop digging by avoiding taking on additional debt. Then come up with a plan to pay it off. Credit card debt can carry interest rates above 30 percent and should be avoided whenever possible.
With credit cards, a plan to pay off debt could include exploring offers that allow people to transfer a balance to a new card and then pay it off interest-free. Or — and this is the easiest, quickest thing people can do — start by calling the credit card issuer (the number's on the back of the card) and ask them to lower your interest rate. If you own a home in South Carolina and the oldest person on the deed turned 65 last year, apply for the Homestead Exemption with your county auditor's office.
The Homestead Exemption excuses $50,000 of a home's value from property taxation. In the city of Charleston, it also exempts homeowners from paying the $11 monthly stormwater fee, upon request to the city. To get it, homeowners must be legal residents of the state for at least a year, have turned 65 by Dec.
31, and have been approved for the owner-occupied home assessment discount. If you own a home that's your primary residence and you haven't applied for the legal residence tax break , you'll be paying about triple the property taxes you would otherwise owe. Apply with your county assessor.
If your bank charges fees for checking accounts , or pays less than 3 percent interest on savings accounts, you can do better. Some financial institutions also offer bonuses to new customers, so shop around. Every year we get older and our circumstances change.
Insurance policies need to keep up, sometimes by adding coverage and sometimes by reducing it. For example, maybe you've paid off a car loan or your vehicle has gotten pretty old and you don't need the same coverage. Or maybe you work at home and drive less — have you told your insurance company? Speaking of getting older, all sorts of discounts become available when people reach certain ages.
As young as 50, people can get an AARP membership ($12 a year) and the discounts it brings for all sorts of things. If you're 55 or older in Charleston County, you can sign up to get $21 off up to 20 weekday Uber or Lyft rides each month through CARTA OnDemand . At 55 you can get discounted wireless-phone plans from Verizon and T-Mobile.
At 60, people can get discounts on purchases at Kohl's on Wednesdays , Harris Teeter on Thursdays , discounted tickets at Regal Cinemas, and too many other discounts to list here..
