PayDay or Salary Day is one of the most important days in a salaried person's life. It is the day when your salary gets credited to your bank account.
For a businessman, there is no payday as such. They get credits into their bank account on random days. Also, most of the time, their income is also flexible. Some months they earn more, others most and some less. The salary graph for them has different peaks.
While for a salaried or employed person, the graph is mostly a straight line which might step up during one of the months and then again take the same straight line route. The salary is also defined at the start of the tenure and the same amount is credited to your account every month until the next appraisal.
I have been salaried personnel for the past 9 years. So since the start of my carrier, I have received all 108 messages talking about salary credit. That's huge! But even today, every time my phone beeps with a salary credit notification, it's excitement, it's an adrenaline rush. I know that the amount is going to be exactly the same as it was the previous month, still there is an anxiety on the pay day about when the message is going to show up.
The payday is usually the last working day of the month. It's 28th of Feb today and it's my payday. I have already received the message for credit of salary to my account and there's a sigh of relief.
So, my question is, that even if when know that it is a sure shot event, the salary is going to get credited on that day, and the amount is also not a surprise for us, what is it about the pay day? Why does it cause excitement even after 9 years?
Let me answer this question based on the psychology of the people I know and mine as well.
For a salaried person like me, the salary is fixed and so are the expenses. We are well aware of the amount of money we are going to earn every month and accordingly we decide on our regular expenses. Every time we intend to buy something out of our regular budget, we need to analyze whether we can afford it or not. We cannot randomly purchase something from our current month's salary, it might impact our expenses. So either we fit the expense into our salary or we use our savings.
While on the other hand, for a businessman, things are not that fixed. If they want to buy something, they can buy it based on their instinct of earning in that month and later can work harder or sell another few quantity to compensate for the additional expense they have made.
This might sound really lucrative but then, there are days in a businessman's life when their income goes for a toss. Like for someone manufacturing sweaters and jackets, the summer season would be low on income, for someone in the event management sector, earnings might take a hit in the times when people do not organize weddings. Like for someone depending upon Hive or POB income, right now would be a total mess given the market condition. Whereas for a fixed salaried person, season or any other kind of fluctuations don't matter. Also, when you are into a business there are no paid leaves too. I get almost 35 days of paid leaves in an year, exclusive of the weekends and public holidays.
The grass is always greener on the other side they say, and it is mostly true.
But I am really happy being a salaried person, that salary credit message gives me the same amount of happiness when a little boy gets an ice cream. I like that feeling of seeing the message, even if the amount is predictable. Sometimes we want stability in life. Hustle never ends, but a stable income is definitely a charm.