Yeah I was very fortunate when I started on contract to have a good paying part time job and it's almost needed just to have that consistent income.
Does 3 paychecks a month make a difference?
- Thread starter GrayerClone
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Yeah I was very fortunate when I started on contract to have a good paying part time job and it's almost needed just to have that consistent income.
I think whether or not it helps is pretty subjective. I would prefer a monthly payment myself, but I get why it would be tough for people with tight budgets. I'm also not someone who likes to budget as if I only get payed twice a month and treat that third check as some kind of windfall. Just not the way I prefer to think about my budget.
In the Olden Days, when there was an actual check, yes.
Now that there are electronic payments, meh. Hardly seems real...just numbers on a page.
First job in Europe, didn't get paid for about a month. Lived on instant soup once a day and Gauloises.
To quote Dickens:
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Now that there are electronic payments, meh. Hardly seems real...just numbers on a page.
First job in Europe, didn't get paid for about a month. Lived on instant soup once a day and Gauloises.
To quote Dickens:
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
I actually liked once a month at my old job way better than my current biweekly. Every month was the same. Get paid and pay all the bills at once. Know exactly what you have until the next payday.
To me, budgeting with payments shuffling between paychecks is super annoying. There are periods of time where a bunch of bills are stacked up on the same check with the house payment and sometimes they're not. We really have to pay attention to what is coming out and when. I liked the consistency of once a month.
Our LLC just switched to only paying some of us once per month, and no withholding. So it's a huge check in relative terms to the biweekly ones with taxes taken out.
I am still figuring out how much to set aside for taxes and where to put it. I'm old enough that the budgeting part is OK, its just weird and an adjustment after all these years of bi-weekly.
I am still figuring out how much to set aside for taxes and where to put it. I'm old enough that the budgeting part is OK, its just weird and an adjustment after all these years of bi-weekly.
When I say budget, I mean it loosely. Basically just make sure my main credit card that handles 95% of my expense hovers around the same number. Everything else is baked in from 401k, ESPP, monthly auto Roth IRA deposit, etc... Helps that I dont have kids and could still live off the salary I had fresh out of college a decade ago.
I was a commissioned sales person. I made 50 percent of my income August through October. Winters were no pay or very little pay. We learned to budget and save. I also sold for a company that your first paycheck wasn't for 3 to 4 weeks after your start date.
My last employment, my department oversaw payroll, exempt (salaried employees) were paid 2X a month. Hourly bi-weekly. The organization was sued one time by an exempt employee because there was an extra pay period one year (when they were paid bi weekly) and salaries were adjusted for only 26 pay periods instead of 27 actual pay periods. The employee won and exempt employees were switched to 2X a month paychecks.
My last employment, my department oversaw payroll, exempt (salaried employees) were paid 2X a month. Hourly bi-weekly. The organization was sued one time by an exempt employee because there was an extra pay period one year (when they were paid bi weekly) and salaries were adjusted for only 26 pay periods instead of 27 actual pay periods. The employee won and exempt employees were switched to 2X a month paychecks.
My old job paid me once a month and I prefer that to my current twice a month. Honestly, I'd be fine if they wanted to pay me quarterly (if there was a small incentive to me for doing so to offset the small amount of interest I earn in 3 month on my liquid funds). I have 4 or 5 months expenses sitting in a money market at most times anyway.
For me that those old days were a couple of years ago at my last teaching job. On the 20th we got our check, put in our mailboxes, generally they were there on the 19th after school. On Friday if the 20th fell on a weekend. No electronic payments were offered, and for many the local bank closed at 4 each day. Luckily the bank we used stayed open until five at the drive up.
Lot of people scrambling out of the building on the day we got paid to race to the bank to get there by four. The gal in charge of payroll just did not want to switch to electronic payments, and had convinced the board it would cost the district too much. They changed after she retired the same year I did.
Oh this is interesting. I was going to say it doesn’t matter unless you set up your spending in a specific way or your paycheck varies wildly but I had no idea this 3rd paycheck benefits payment was a thing
According to the wife, former paymaster for a city, they can set up the system for taking out insurance and other payments for 26 checks, but most cities generally stayed with 24. She said it happens a couple of times a year that they would issue a 2 week check, 3 times in a month.
