Bonus time...Woo Hoo

Brian is blessed to have gotten a job right away after he retired from the service and it was, thankfully, a pretty easy transition. The company he works for gives bonuses every year based on profit for the year (not unusual, many do). There is some sort of calculation that involves up to a certain percent of their salary, whatever that profit margin was, and how the planets align. I don't know what it is, I just know come March we get a little extra in the paycheck. Yay! We used to get bonuses in the service as well, signing bonuses, they were incentives to keep you in the service if you reup for so many years. That bonus depended on your rate and what they felt like your skills were worth. Brian was a Nuclear Engineer and it was pretty sweet the first couple of times. After a certain number of years there is no bonus, at that point you are clearly a "lifer" and they don't need to entice you anymore. Being able to start collecting retirement checks at 40 is a pretty sweet incentive.

Funny thing about bonuses, people really start to depend on them (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). They count it as part of their salary and often times have it mentally spent in their head before it hits the bank, sometimes have spent it in advance by charging and then plan to repay with the bonus. It is part of your salary, it will get taxed, and you will get to spend it, but we have NEVER counted on it or included it in our budget. It has always been what it is...a BONUS. The cool part of viewing it this way is, if it's not as much as you thought, it's OK, if it's more than you thought, awesome. We don't plan for it. It either goes in our savings account, or this year towards a couple of bills and a dang water heater (not fun) and Brian's lift on his Jeep (FUN). This is not to say that I don't like getting it, I totally do, for a couple of reasons, Brian works his butt off and deserves it, and because I'm the saver in our family so the more I can tip the finances in our favor the happier I am.  It's a nice cushion to have, but if next year there is no bonus, we'd be fine and that's what's really important. (Plus we have some in laws that would be happy to bring the boss over to the house so we could get our revenge.)

Now you'll have to excuse me while I go call the pool guy...OK, no, but wouldn't that be nice? We are eating out for dinner, though, you have to splurge a little.

Until next time,
Julie