It has become the norm that people work hard during the course of the year so they can have a great Festive Season. While the December holidays are a great time to spend time with our loved ones, financially, the period does more harm than good.

Most companies pay their employees bonuses and this fuels exorbitant and reckless spending. The level of expenditure during this season leaves much to be desired, as people indulge in expensive foods and beverages. There are multiple unplanned gatherings, music festivals and soccer tournaments, and those who are not financially smart end up spending unbudgeted funds out of excitement.

It is so sad that many people work hard the whole year only to blow their hard-earned cash in just a few days. Most of the things we do in December are not even that important, but we somehow feel the need to do so only to be faced with extreme misery come January. What destroys most people financially is to start a new year on a bad footing.

If you have to borrow money to sustain yourself in January as you await your first salary for the new year, chances are that you will have a financially terrible year. May we stop planning our lives around December because a human beings life is not tied to a calendar.

Let us rejoice with our loved ones within the confines of our affordability. Spending money recklessly just because it is December is not helping any of us. There are 12 months in a year and it can’t be that our efforts get swallowed by a portion of a single month. This phenomenon has been happening for ages yet we don’t seem to learn from that experience.

Malphia Honwane, eManyeleti, Mpumalanga