Why is January the longest month of the year, the month people experience financial stress the most and the month with the highest divorce rate? Can there be connection to the preceeding month of festive season?

1. January Starts after Christmas – Save Money and Save Lives!
My first encounter of January as the proverbial longest month of year left me wondering why it took
so long for a 31day month to end. I kept asking what date of the month it was to reassure myself
that my calendar was actually right. That was about 25years ago and my first year as a worker after
graduation. In fact I almost could bet that, that particular January was probably forty days and not
thirty one days like other Januarys
Today as I see people troop to the shopping malls, buying and spending in the spirit of the season, I
am almost tempted to shout out- Remember January is the longest month, don’t spend all your
money. What with the frenzy, the feeling of freedom to do anything and the Christmas songs that
tends to wake up the appetite to throw caution to the winds. And not forgetting the advertisement
of great bargains and rewards for using your ATM cards to shop. Wow! It will take more than guts to
resist the temptations, but resist you must.
The purpose of this thoughts is to advise that you spend wisely and save more during Christmas
season. I read somewhere a long time ago that up to thirty five percent of goods especially food an
toys bought during Christmas actually end up in the garbage can or landfills. Simply put rather than
buy 100% of the quantity you planned to buy, you should actually buy just 65% and save the 35% for
the future. This can be done in many different ways like buying a little less than what you feel you
would need when you go shopping. You can equally shop after the season. Budget all you spending
on 65% and stick to it. Whenever you are going window shopping don’t carry your ATM cards.
Talking about ATM cards, I encountered a little drama a few days ago at a phone shop. I had gone
there to buy a phone for my wife as our anniversary gift. It’s a simple phone with the basic
functionalities, needless of telling you the price. Back to my story; This young man walk in saw this
same phone he saw on the internet for N65,000, going for N74,000. The sales attendant gave him a
nothing below N70,000 bargain. I noticed he wanted to excuse himself by telling the guy that he
wanted to go and bring cash from the ATM. The attendant a smart salesman told him we have POS.
He brought out his ATM, paid for the phone but as he walked out I could tell that he wished he left
his card at home. He would have saved about N5,000 from that purchase.
Saving and spending wisely is a major key to success in life. W. Clement Stone said, ‘a part of
all you earn is for you to keep, and if you cannot save money, the seed of greatness are not
in you’. This is true because I also found out that saving, spending wisely and managing your
money better actually help in all aspect of your life. I found something intriguing about
January that tends to connect the dots. It is no longer news that 75% of divorce cases are
due to money management issues. And January is the longest month of the year not
because of any additional days but because all the money would have been spent for the
festive season leaving very little for January. Meaning that, people experience the most
financial stress in the month of January.
Now I recently found out that January is also tagged the ‘Divorce Month’ according to
statistics published by eDivorcePapers.com, January has the most legal breakups. And in the words

2. of Cathy Meyer a Certified divorce consultant, “January consistently sees the most divorce filings. It
just really amazes me, though it probably shouldn’t . . . my own husband left in January."
So what is it with this month of January? Should we just expunge it out of the calendar? I am sure a
lot of divorcees would have voted in favour of that motion because they probably would have still
been married if that had happened but the reality is that it is not the month that creates financial
stress; it is not the month that create situations for divorce, it’s the way we throw away all the
frugality, money management sense and financial cautions of the rest of the year during the
Christmas season. That is why January can easily be tagged the Christmas or End of year ‘hang-over
month’. After enjoying a frolicking time during the holiday season, January is the month of
‘reckoning’ when all the ‘sins’ committed in December wi ll be required of you.
We engage on a spending spree as if there is no tomorrow, we spend money in December forgetting
the rents, the school fees, and many other bills that will be due in January. And when January comes
we are edgy, emotionally stressed, financially destabilised and you can trust that the closest things
to us gets the bashing whether it is our spouse or our marriages, our job and even our health.
Can you see the connection now? The month with the highest financial stress is also the month with
highest divorce rate. Imagine the possibilities of the numbers of marriages that would have been
saved if they had been wiser in their spending and money management. Imagine the effect of
financial stress on family members due to recklessness during the season. Or is it the low
productivity at work in January because the month suddenly became longer because salaries came
earlier than usual. Let’s consider the huge life-time effect of divorce on all the members of the family
especially the children and the enormous cost to the national economy of a season that lasts less
than 10% of the year.
I am by no means saying that managing money or spending wisely or saving during Christmas season
is the only antidotes to the ever increasing rate of stress, divorce, bankruptcy and health issues. But
it sure will help if we are more mindful of the damaging effect these few days of reckless spending
have on our entire wellbeing.
So save your life, save your marriage, save your health by saving and spending less during the
Christmas and end of the year festivities.
Saving Money is Saving Lives – Yours First!