| I have a problem. It’s not even Thanksgiving, but I’ve already blown my Christmas budget. Blame the flights home. Blame impulsive shopping — already I’ve splashed out on gifts, mostly from the internet. More than anything, cue up your tiny little violins and just blame me. I know I’m not alone, though. And I know, after calling up financial advisers around the country this week, it’s something that happens across the income spectrum. In fact, money managers say people with higher incomes who work or travel a lot feel pressure to perform around the holiday season, leading them to spend more than even their big budgets allow. “They’re trying to make up for not spending time or not going to the kids’ T-ball game,” said Melissa Murphy Pavone of Mindful Financial Partners in Westhampton Beach, New York. Yikes. Sounds like me. Advisers say if you find yourself overspending this time of year, it’s helpful to ask why. Sure, marketers have moved up holiday advertising to the early autumn in a bid to squeeze as much from consumers as possible. But there are deeper questions to ask about what a big cash outflow might reveal about yourself. Blowing the budget can indicate a lack of alignment between your financial goals and your spending habits, Pavone told me. It can highlight a need for a deeper understanding of not just how you think about money, but the ways in which you communicate about it in your family. If I get really vulnerable for you readers, I think I overspend because I want my family to think I’m successful. Maybe even more than I really am. I fly thousands of miles to go home for a few days. I bring nice gifts. I sneak off to pay the bill at the end of a family meal and tell my parents “it’s been handled.” What to do? “First and foremost, let’s calculate the financial impact,” says Ashton Lawrence of Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina. “And then try to adjust other spending categories, trying to create some type of balance.” My basic economy flights home are a sunk cost. But some of the gifts I’ve splurged on aren’t. There is a world where I do what Lawrence suggested and return those gifts — ones that maybe weren’t the most affordable purchases in the first place — and replace them with cheaper options. It’s also still early, and I have time to cut back on other discretionary spending, avoid any and all Black Friday sales, and maybe not offer to pay for a night in a fancy hotel the day I land back home in California for Christmas. (Sorry, Mom.) Melissa Caro of My Retirement Network in New York City understands people want to be generous around the holidays. She encourages budgeting, but notices people tend to put holiday spending in a different bucket than other cash outlays. It’s like we think some Christmas magic will suddenly make the debt disappear come January 1. I asked her what to do if it’s too late. If the flights are booked, the gifts unreturnable. She told me one of the big issues for the over-generous is they create a cycle, an expectation that every year will be equally — if not more — extravagant. You can break the cycle by telling people what you’ve done and recasting their expectations for the future. “You kind of acknowledge that you’ve gone a little over the top this year,” Caro says. But then you have to make clear that it’s not necessarily going to happen again. Consider that my new holiday strategy. — Charlie Wells P.S. Each week I take on a big financial question and ask experts what to do about it. Send questions about your own financial dilemmas to bbgwealth@bloomberg.net. We may get expert answers for you, and feature your question and the answer in an upcoming newsletter. Nvidia’s stock fell after a disappointing forecast. The shares sank Thursday in the wake of its quarterly earnings release. The company assured investors that its new product lineup can maintain its artificial intelligence-fueled growth run, though the rush to get the chips out the door is proving more costly than expected. Investors had bid up Nvidia shares almost 200% this year. After that dizzying rally, which turned the chipmaker into the world’s most valuable company, anything but a blowout quarter was bound to be a disappointment. Oil has been rallying. Much of this has to do with investor concern about the war in Ukraine. Brent hovered near $74 a barrel after Ukraine said Russia launched a “new” kind of missile at the central city of Dnipro, following the expanded use of Western-provided long-range weapons by Kyiv’s forces. The biggest gainers and losers on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index over the past week: Elon Musk was the biggest gainer in dollar terms. The world’s richest man and adviser to the incoming administration of Donald Trump added $20.1 billion to his net worth, bringing it up to $340.3 billion. That increase is partially due to a jump in Tesla shares and partially due to a $11.7 billion increase in the valuation of xAI. Jeff Bezos was the biggest loser in dollar terms. The world’s second-richest man clocked a $10.5 billion loss, bringing his net worth down to $234.6 billion. According to a November 2024 company filing, Bezos owns about 8.8% of Amazon, which is down slightly from last week. American Homebuyers Are Bracing for Rate Pain Before Donald Trump’s election, Redfin Corp. projected mortgage rates would average 6.1% next year. That's basically in line with where rates are today, with the average for a 30-year fixed loan at 6.84%, according to Freddie Mac. “The difference is Trump,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “The market seems to be pricing in that he’ll move forward with at least some of the tariffs, but it’s really hard to know what Trump is going to do.” It’s another hit for a housing market that’s been dealing with a rise in borrowing costs that’s pushed at least one measure of mortgage rates above 7%. Manhattan Apartment Rents Rise to Highest Since July Manhattan apartment rents climbed in October to the highest level in three months, rising to prices normally seen during the market’s busier months.  Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg The median rent on new leases increased 2.4% from a year earlier to $4,295, the first annual gain since April, brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate and appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. reported last week. This week, we’re looking for people who left traditional finance jobs for a role in crypto and are now taking a victory lap, given the digital asset’s surge. Some of our best journalism at Bloomberg Wealth comes from your own stories and we’d love to hear from you, your friends or clients. Please email bbgwealth@bloomberg.net or fill out this form. Join us March 4-5 in the heart of New York’s Financial District as we convene allocators, dealmakers and investors from across the globe. Led by Bloomberg Global Finance Correspondent Sonali Basak, we'll track, dissect and help you navigate the markets with the industry’s most influential voices. Learn more. | 
