It’s official: pay rises and bonuses are bad for your financial health! According to the latest research from Prudential more of us are saddling ourselves with debts in anticipation of pay rises and bonuses. It seems that spending money before we actually receive it is a growing problem – currently 17 per cent of the population admit to spending an as-yet unreceived pay rise or bonus and the problem occurs when we actually over-anticipate what we will receive. This over-enthusiasm for spending money that doesn’t belong to us sees nine per cent of Britons running up debts in excess of £1,400 over the past five years. The research also reveals that following a pay rise it takes the majority of us just two months before our spending hits a level that has reached our new income.