Disclaimer: I am not an academician neither am I a qualified financial advisor.

Let's try and reason together, with regards to the reasons why people complain of hardship in January. Probably this discussion may help us to plan well enough to avoid the often occurrence.

But first, this is my take;
- In Nigeria, most often, salaries are paid at the last week of every month, though payment do come earlier in some festive months, December being one of such months.
- This income is supposedly meant to be spent on our needs as may arise in the preceding months...however, debt do make people seem to spend fractions of their income before the beginning of the next month.
- Some people will bask in the air of celebration in months like December, as such spend heavily...probably to meet up to expectations of relatives/friends, which might be necessary or merely a show-off.

Having state these points, one can then say that it is possible to avoid the unnecessary hardship that often is self-inflicted during the month of January. How? By Planing and Prudent Spending.

Let's say that our monthly pay do come regularly at the last week of every month, and we did live within our means without owing anyone. Planning to meet up our relatives/friends expectations should be moderated to fit in with our income as well as budgeting on our expenses for the next month,

Why spend 60-70k of your 100k salary in a space of 8 days, when you still have about 28-30 days of the next month to spend in. We should rather budget for January first, and what is left can then be spend during the Dec festive period.
Sometimes, people feel that they can go borrowing in January, when the next person might be as broke as they are...

Cutting my long epistle short, I summarise by saying that, If we budget for January first before spending our December income within a week will certainly limit the usual complain of hardship in January. Noting that most often January pay do come a bit late.

Compliment of the season folks...

Because they did not plan well

Probably due to the festive period.

DuchessLily:
Because they did not plan well

Yeah...me think planning is the key here...

Jolllyjoy:
Probably due to the festive period.

Yeah...like I mentioned above, people do spend during the festive period as if January doesn't exist or probably there'll be another pay when Jan comes around...and that's often very disappointing

Cc: lalasticlala and MOD to whom it may concern, get to front page if it is worth learning...guessing peeps can learn from others here