Do you talk about money during Thanksgiving dinner? One financial advisor says you might want to

HONOLULU (KHON) — The holidays can be a very costly time of year, with grocery expenses, holiday deals, and gift giving.

Because of that Caine Nakata with Milestone Wealth Management says it’s always good to remind people that saving your money and cutting back during this time of year could help them in the long run.

“Our concern has always been, you know, people struggle with retirement,” said Nakata. “Here in our state retirement is such a big challenge with the cost of living constantly rising, with different generations living within a household.”

Nakata says saving for retirement is easier said than done. In fact, with the pandemic still lingering on, many people are looking forward to getting with the family and splurging just a little.

“I think one of the biggest challenges over the past two years was just being in COVID,” said Nakata. “For some of these families this might be the first time getting together in almost two years, so there’s a lot of excitement behind the holiday season coming around.”

Nakata said now might be the best time to talk to family about financial struggles and coming up with a financial plan just in case it’s needed.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen where those families who have had those discussions and you know, address things ahead of time, it kind of brought them together when things happen and the ones that didn’t, it really tore them apart,” said Nakata.

Nakata said steps anyone can take to gain ownership over their finances is simply scaling back and really emphasizing needs versus wants.

“Is that really a necessity and is that really helping us break that generational curse that occurs over and over and over and unfortunately to get out of that it takes sacrifice,” said Nakata.