Beware the December pay trap!

clairebeth

Hi, I wasn't blaming payroll for people spending their money, but I do think it makes it a lot more confusing. They should just stick to their 'last Thursday in the month' pay, then at least everyone knows where they are at year round. For those that budget month to month it creates a three week month followed by two five week months.
Presumably it's less hassle for payroll also. That's what I meant by sorting their priorities, not letting a holiday change the way they operate.

EssexHebridean

monetxchange wrote: »

My work tend to do our usual pay dates in December and January, but also try to do a mid December part wage that would be deducted from your January wage. Last year I told them I didn't want the mid-Dec pay and they were fine with it. Worth asking them to hold off if your work does something similar!

Great tip - thank you! Again quite alarming that workplaces would do stuff like this - at least without fully presenting the flip-side.

clairebeth wrote: »

Hi, I wasn't blaming payroll for people spending their money, but I do think it makes it a lot more confusing. They should just stick to their 'last Thursday in the month' pay, then at least everyone knows where they are at year round. For those that budget month to month it creates a three week month followed by two five week months.
Presumably it's less hassle for payroll also. That's what I meant by sorting their priorities, not letting a holiday change the way they operate.

Clairebeth I think everyone understood what you meant in your post - and one person just chose to ignore that for the purposes of thread-spoiling. He has a track record of this behaviour in threads that are designed to help people in this way. You're absolutely right in what you said, for my money!

boliston

I only ever actually spend on my credit cards (never use debit cards or cash) so getting paid early does not make any difference whatsoever as my credit cards are normally due for payment in the first week of the following month

EssexHebridean

boliston wrote: »

I only ever actually spend on my credit cards (never use debit cards or cash) so getting paid early does not make any difference whatsoever as my credit cards are normally due for payment in the first week of the following month

And set up to pay off in full, I assume? This can indeed be a good way of managing things though.

boliston

EssexHebridean wrote: »

And set up to pay off in full, I assume? This can indeed be a good way of managing things though.

Yep as it would be a costly way to borrow and the interest would more than wipe out any cashback earnt - (I always use bacs rather than dd to pay it)

Davy_Jones_II

sourcrates wrote: »

Money from the previous month ?

I don`t think many people these days have much money left in the run up to payday, they tend to live payday to payday, for low income famillies especially, the idea of budgeting correctly is all well and good, but for a lot of people it remains a far off dream.

Even were that the case (and I doubt it), an early payday still means money arriving before the previous month’s pay has been spent.

Or are you claiming that because people know it’s arriving early that they go out and blow the housekeeping?

sourcrates

Davy_Jones_II wrote: »

Even were that the case (and I doubt it), an early payday still means money arriving before the previous month’s pay has been spent.

Or are you claiming that because people know it’s arriving early that they go out and blow the housekeeping?

Well I would suggest that is the case, as the number of people relying on credit part way through the month is on the increase, as the early payday in December is used to fund Christmas by great numbers of people, that is why there is always, year on year, a massive influx of new posters to this forum asking for debt help, in January when the bills hit the doormat.

We have seen this happen year after year since I joined this forum, it is a sad fact of life for many, hence the need for this thread, it’s extremely hard to say no to your children when all their friends have the latest gear, trying to keep up with the Jones’s, it’s a live for today, Sod tomorrow attitude, not ideal I agree, but that is life for many these days.

EssexHebridean

Davy_Jones_II wrote: »

Even were that the case (and I doubt it), an early payday still means money arriving before the previous month’s pay has been spent.

Or are you claiming that because people know it’s arriving early that they go out and blow the housekeeping?

No - in a lot of cases at this time of year where the pressure to spend is high a lot of people will already be into their overdrafts - so money coming in "early" will be absorbed into that, or used to cover more of that "pressured spending".

You may not find this occurs - I don't either, I'm in a position where I can budget for Christmas spending, and as my originating post for the thread says, if I DO get early pay in December I just ignore it or shift it to savings where it will earn a peanut in interest until "payday" arrives - but you and I need to remember that we are in a privileged position in this regard, and not everybody else has that privilege, rather than dismissing the issues they face as them being "stupid" or "ill-advised". It's not always as clear cut as someone "blowing the housekeeping" on some sort of whim - and it's incredibly flippant and dismissive to suggest that this is the case.

The underlined words in your post - by the way - show beyond all doubt that you are a long way adrift of being in touch with the problems faced by a lot of visitors to these forums - and this board in particular. Please - accept that you don't have to understand what causes these problems, but, when on the DFW boards, you do have to tolerate that situation and treat it non-judgmentally. In my opinion your posts are currently falling short of that fairly simple DFW benchmark.

EssexHebridean

sourcrates wrote: »

Well I would suggest that is the case, as the number of people relying on credit part way through the month is on the increase, as the early payday in December is used to fund Christmas by great numbers of people, that is why there is always, year on year, a massive influx of new posters to this forum asking for debt help, in January when the bills hit the doormat.

We have seen this happen year after year since I joined this forum, it is a sad fact of life for many, hence the need for this thread, it’s extremely hard to say no to your children when all their friends have the latest gear, trying to keep up with the Jones’s, it’s a live for today, Sod tomorrow attitude, not ideal I agree, but that is life for many these days.

OK - all of this post, but the highlighted bit in particular. Sourcrates has a HUGE amount of experience helping people on the boards and talks a lot of sense here.

***********

If you're reading this thread and thinking "well those people must be pretty thick if they'd do that" then PLEASE - just internalise that. Accept that just by having that knowledge, AND the financial status to be able to manage things as YOU may do - you are privileged. Thank your lucky stars that is the case - regardless of whether you arrived there by a twist of fate, by being fortunate enough to get a level of personal financial education as a child that many on here could only dream of, or whether you have worked hard to achieve that status - saving, paying off debt and learning about managing money at the sharp end. Regardless of your route there, it IS a privilege - and your time is better spent helping others to gain that level of knowledge, than in telling them they are stupid, dismissing the situation that they may find themselves in sometimes through NO fault of their own). Please just move on to another thread rather than posting thread-spoiling comments that may well put those in need of support from joining in the dialogue.

[Deleted User]

Just bumping this thread as I like to have a gentle reminder to move money over to a separate account.

Thanks EssexHebridean and sourcrates good advice as always x