Christmas Financial Hangovers
It must be that the News Services really have nothing much to talk about in January. There seems to be a plethora of fluff out there. The new thing for January is Blue Monday.
To any Montrealer, Blue Monday means a particular game where the Expos lost the 5th (and final) game of the 1981 National League Championship Series, to a home run by Rick Monday (who played for the Dodgers). To others, it is a great Fats Domino tune or even a song by New Order. None of these are what the media is talking about.
Blue Monday Equation
As with all good Media Fluff, this Blue Monday started as a public relations campaign by Sky Travel. Sky Travel published a study done by Cliff Arnall where the following equation gives you the most depressing day of the year:
Let us not worry ourselves with this complex piece of pseudo-mathematics. Click on the equation to see the full explanation. Suffice it to say that the Most Depressing Day of the Year falls on the Monday of the last full week in January, which this year is allegedly today. I would have assumed that if you booked a holiday through Sky Travel, you might beat blue Monday as well, but I guess that is me being a cynic.
I like this equation because it builds in an important Financial Portion, which is the lower case d in the equation, namely DEBT, and we all know how Christmas Debt Hangovers can ruin our January, if not our entire year.
Usually, you have received most of your Credit Card bills by this date. You now realize that you may have overspent, and that extra money you thought you had, is now going to be needed to pay off your debt. Worse, you will have to put together a debt repayment schedule to deal with this new debt load).
Do you have a large Christmas Debt Hangover?
So beware of Blue Monday, don’t let it catch you unawares. If anybody sees Rick Monday (the baseball player), tell him I still hold a grudge against him! He is also remembered for saving the American Flag from being burnt by many protesters.
