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pay day

September 18th, 2015 at 04:37 pm

My current salary is $68,312. I'm not completely happy with that, but that's a story for another post. Obviously, I'm grateful to have a well-paying job and my benefits are excellent, but I would like to be making more money overall, especially for the amount of time I have spent at the workforce and at my current place of employment. I failed to plan, though, so here I am!

I don't really ever look at my pay stub, so I'm going to do that now and see what's what.

I get paid every two weeks.

Gross pay: 2627.38
Deductions: 1608.24
Retirement plan (mandatory 6%) 157.64
Retirement plan (voluntary) 1,024.68
Medical Insurance 22.89
Dental Insurance 1.05
Vision Insurance .52
Flex Spending Account 57.70
Fed tax, SS, medicare & state tax 343.76
Net pay: 1019.14

Every other pay period, my paycheck is $1015.94, with an additional $3.20 deducted for a life insurance policy, which I believe is mandatory.

Interesting to know that if I ceased all voluntary retirement and flex spending contributions, my pay would be more like $2101.52 every two weeks. That's not entirely accurate, though, since those are pre-tax deductions, so I'm assuming my taxes would be a bit higher? In that case, I'd be living on $54,639.52 a year. Wow, that would be great! Of course, I would have no retirement savings.

I am started to wonder if I should put less towards retirement and more towards living today. It's a balancing act and I may be focusing too much on the future at the expense of the present. I want to keep thinking about that. Of course, I'm afraid to save a little less for retirement (what if I become a bag lady?!!), but life is here and now and in some ways, I'm missing out and denying myself, which may not be necessary.

So happy that it's Friday!!! Smile

4 Responses to “pay day”

  1. Kiki Says:
    1442594363

    How much are you saving each year for retirement at 1024/paycheck?

  2. snafu Says:
    1442595548

    Before you make changes to retirement savings I hope you'll look at the 'rules' and how it all applies to your specific circumstances. It starts with things like genetics, the state of your health now and medical problems you might encounter as a senior. Many of us are looking at the need to be self supporting for 35 or more years.

    What tangible goals do you visualize as a senior? Things like maintaining your current standard of living, eliminating a mortgage [doesn't eliminate municipal tax, utilities, maintenance & repairs] travel to exotic destinations or???. The financial gurus suggest planning to spend 70% of current net. How much does your current allocation of retirement funds earn? Does past history suggest it has doubled every 7 years? How much risk can you tolerate? What is the correlation between your age and your retirement saving?

    Again, the gurus say twice your annual salary by age 30, five times annual salary by age 50. The info repeatedly says to plan to withdraw 4% of retirement funds annually to self sustain and understand that as a senior your allocation will be more conservative year by year.

    I admit, I read Patient Saver's blog and her mom's circumstances and it's influencing my thinking...

    ...just some unedited thoughts

  3. starfishy Says:
    1442596651

    Hi Kiki, If i use my current (as of July 1, it was a little less before my paltry raise) salary of $68,312, I am currently saving $38,347/year. Mandatory 6% contribution = $4100, voluntary over 50 contribution = $24,000, forgot to mention that my company kicks in 15% on top of all that = $10,247.

    Hi Snafu, thanks for your thoughts. decreasing retirement savings is definitely not a decision i would make lightly!

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1442890438

    To put it into perspective, your two week take home (net) is about $300 more than my monthly gross ... I'm guessing you have some expenses that are more than mine (housing costs? etc.) I guess I'm just saying, that you can always reduce expenses in retirement and still have fun.

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