Here's a holiday riddle for you: What's big, plump, more than you'll ever be able to handle and requires a lot of work to get rid of when the holidays are over? No, it's not Aunt Posey's deep-fried Butterball, lovingly boiled in refreshing peanut oil (although this is a vivid guess).

It's that plastic in your wallet or purse calling to you to buy something else, right now - before the rush begins. It's probably calling to you like some demonic clown from a Stephen King straight-to-DVD special that you wished you hadn't wasted an hour of your life on. The sad tale of your credit card bill doesn't end well, either.

"Is your car so sexy that you'll allow it to dictate where you are going to live and what you're going to eat on your 80th birthday? If you own a home, have secured your retirement and are debt free with adequate college funds for your kids, feel free to pass me on the freeway in your $1,000 a month liability."

How do we break this cycle when it's the faces of our children or spouse or our parents that we see when we shop at the holidays? How do we harden our heart and steel our gaze as we walk by the endless rows of ipods and elmos and shining barbeque grills that do so many things they are practically sentient life forms?

I say follow Nissan's model... shift.

First, shift the way you save. Pay yourself 10 percent of every dollar you earn first and save it. If you take this approach and faithfully follow it you can achieve your goals. Why does it work? In a practical manner, by doing it you are simply denying yourself the ability to spend the money you've earned. This creates not so much what you want (to save money - which is hard), but instead creates what you can't do (which is spend money that you don't have).

It seems like an insignificant difference but it is larger than life itself. Take that money out of circulation and out of your budget and you take away the ability to be naughty with those dollars. You haven't changed your behavior, you've changed your environment - and that wins hands down every time. If you doubt what I say, then try standing inside a burning building and change your situation by not breathing. I'll be out front waiting for you when your little experiment is over.

Next, shift the way you spend. The above suggestions do you no good whatsoever if you spend the money that you've saved on non-assets or assets that go down in value. Anyone out there driving a "stunning" car who also doesn't own a house has this question to ask themselves: Is your car so sexy that you'll allow it to dictate where you are going to live and what you're going to eat on your 80th birthday? If you own a home and have a nice car, have secured your retirement and are debt free with adequate college funds for your kids, feel free to pass me on the freeway waving "creatively" in your $1,000 a month liability. But most of you reading this haven't done all of these things.

What you order for breakfast on your 80th birthday will be dictated by how much you save and how well those investments perform over the length of your lifetime. Where do you want to be eating that breakfast? While living in your kids home? Will you need long term care, and if so, who will pay for it and where will you stay? Will it be a meal you will want to eat or a meal that you have to eat?

Live below your means, forget what the neighbors think and acquire appreciating assets. It is a great way to wealth.

Shift the way you think. Read books. Turn off your ipod and listen to a real estate book on tape or a talk show on a financial topic. Become an expert. Meet with a financial advisor and ask him or her questions. Seek the advice of successful and wealthy people. Buy an hour of a CPA's or an attorney's time and listen to what they have to say. Disguise yourself and go to a seminar. "But that's not me, Ken!," you might cry, "I could never do that!" Okay, then move over and let someone else by. You can share a seat with another angry, perplexed senior at one of my workshops who waited too long, started too late and is still driving that same "stunning" car. Not because it's still "stunning," but because at least it's still running.


Ken Rice is the national director of Total Financial Money School. He is also a certified estate planner. E-mail questions and comments to tfm@insidescv.com.