Every year that I witness this I am amazed at the reactions of some people. I work at a place where we get paid once a month, on the very last business day of the month. The people that I work with have to manage their money to last the month because our pay date changes every month, depending on the actual number of days in the month and day of the week that the last day falls on.
I do not see the changing dates as a problem because I budget for the month and use my Zero Based Budget to stay on track of things. Every December we end up getting paid on the last working day which is usually around the 17th of the month, so we end up getting paid almost two weeks early that month.
I see this as a great way for me to earn some interest so I just let the money sit in the account and continue to have my bills paid on the monthly schedule that every other month of the year follows. My coworkers on the other hand tend to get mad because they live paycheck to paycheck and every time money comes in that means it ‘must’ go out. So they spend as soon as they get some income because htey do not want to run out of money later on.
I am glad that I budget and have gotten out of the paycheck to paycheck mentality and can just let the money sit for two weeks until my bill paying and shopping cycle starts again. Do you know anyone who gets all bent out of shape when they get a bonus or extra paycheck?
It would seem like it wouldn’t make a difference but I know a lot of people don’t have actual budgets and they just seem to spend the money as fast as it comes in. For them it means that they won’t bet another paycheck for almost 6 weeks.
That’s just another reason to have and stick to a budget.
You know I never thought about the part where you don’t get paid for another 6 weeks until the end of January. I guess when you look at it like that then I can see how they feel. Waiting six weeks to get paid is harder than waiting 4 weeks like normal.
I am so happy I follow a monthly budget so I don’t have to think about six weeks or four weeks or anything like that. Thanks for brining up that point.
I could definitely see that payroll format causing some people problems. A lot of people simply are not good at managing their money. When they see money in their bank account, they see that as a green light to go spend that money on whatever they want. They simply are not used to making that money last 4-6 weeks.