A Millionaire Nurse is kind, gentle, frugal, loving, generous, a leader, and well-read. (Sounds kind of  like the Boy Scout oath)  So what are millionaire nurses doing for their Christmas shopping.

• They are shopping by a list with spending limit on each person-agreed upon by both adults in your family (although many of us act like kids this time of year).
• They make sure they pay for their purchases with cash, or debit card-no credit cards allowed unless they can easily be paid off -no cheating allowed!
• They give money or time to charitable organizations  in honor of their recipients, and not a tie, or another sweater – thrown in the closet or re-gifted next year.
• They understand the reason for the season, and avoid the hype/materialism and consumerism and focus on being a better friend, mother, father, son or daughter.
• They make a list of all their friends and relatives and send them a note, or a phone call just to let them know they are thinking about them.

Brent Arands in the Wall Street Journal has an article detailing the savings that could be had by cutting back on our holiday spending.  The amount of money that you could save over your life time by cutting back on your purchases by just 20% should open your eyes.  Saving over 10,000 bucks over the next 35 years if you are an average spender of $600 each Christmas.

So make the difficult first step towards becoming a millionaire nurse.  That step is to vow to begin to change your spending habits and grab ahold of your finances.

Please share with us your giving plans this Christmas, and if you are spending more or less than usual.  And check out this Christmas related spending question on Cash Commons-a great financial question and answer site.