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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: maginvizIZ on April 14, 2018, 10:32:51 PM

Title: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: maginvizIZ on April 14, 2018, 10:32:51 PM
Short and simple... I can buy up to 2 weeks of additional vacation time... I BUY VACATION TIME AFTER TAX (weird).

Would you do it? Pay around $600 worth of taxes for 80 more hours? Or keep hustling?
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: joestash on April 14, 2018, 11:09:39 PM
Your employer is offering you the opportunity to pay them to give you less $/hr?  That's some evil genius right there.
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: Joel on April 14, 2018, 11:12:40 PM
Said another way, your company offers you 2 additional weeks at a salary less than 100% of your normal salary. Depending on what that percentage is, I would certainly consider it.
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: pk_aeryn on April 14, 2018, 11:18:14 PM
I'm not super mathematically inclined but I don't understand this at all.  If they're ok with you taking that time off, if you want it, why is unpaid leave not an option?

I don't ever think one should pay their employer for anything, that's just not the direction money should flow in a good relationship.
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: gerardc on April 15, 2018, 12:12:36 AM
I'm not super mathematically inclined but I don't understand this at all.  If they're ok with you taking that time off, if you want it, why is unpaid leave not an option?

You don't understand because the OP did a terrible job at detailing the terms of the offer.

Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: Saskatchewstachian on April 15, 2018, 08:12:38 AM
I'm not super mathematically inclined but I don't understand this at all.  If they're ok with you taking that time off, if you want it, why is unpaid leave not an option?


Just this past week I was chatting with HR about time off, since I work a weird schedule to get two weeks off I would need to take 161hrs of vacation time. Since that is more vacation than I accrue in an entire year I asked about taking the time as unpaid vacation. The response received was "We don't really do unpaid vacation".

If this is the case for OP where the employer may not allow unpaid vacation I guess I could see this workaround being a good option.
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: swinginbeef on April 16, 2018, 07:36:12 AM
My company offers the option of buying an additional week of PTO during the annual benefits renewal period. I elect to buy 40hrs of PTO, they show up in my PTO bank on Jan1 and then they withhold the cost of the week (at my Jan1 hourly rate) through the 26 payperiods over the year. The advantage I see is that my annual raise is in late March, so after that point I'm using the time at my current rate even though I'm paying for it at my Jan1 rate. If I didn't buy the additional PTO and instead took unpaid leave, it would cost me at my current rate. I have to use accrued PTO first and if I don't use the bought PTO by the end of the year, they "buy back" the remaining hours at the same Jan1 rate. But if there is one thing that I'm REALLY good at in my job, it's using my PTO time...
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: Basenji on April 16, 2018, 08:45:42 AM
OP, you didn't say how much vacation time is provided without purchasing more, so hard to know what to think. I scanned your posts to see if you were European, nope 'Merican. (Europeans get mad vacation time.)

Data point on a baller vacation policy: my ex-full time work gave me 10 days paid sick (did not roll over) and 20 days paid vacation (could be rolled over to next year) plus the national holidays AND when employees took a vacation day, we received extra pay in addition to our regular salary. That is, if one took all 20 vacation days in a year, the total pay for taking vacation amounted to an additional 5 percent of the our annual salary.

You can imagine my horror at the thought of having to pay for extra vacation.
ETA: OK, jlcnuke made me revise my thoughts on this.
 
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: jlcnuke on April 16, 2018, 08:48:56 AM
I'm not super mathematically inclined but I don't understand this at all.  If they're ok with you taking that time off, if you want it, why is unpaid leave not an option?

I don't ever think one should pay their employer for anything, that's just not the direction money should flow in a good relationship.

PTO = paid time off. Buying PTO = paying some money, to get more paid time off. Making up numbers here, but this illustrates the concept:

Pay $600 to get 2 weeks of PTO. Take two weeks of PTO and get paid $2,000 for those two weeks off. Net effect - you take 2 more weeks off and are paid at 70% your normal rate for those extra PTO weeks (paid a net $1,400 out of a standard $2,000 for those two weeks).
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: swinginbeef on April 16, 2018, 09:09:52 AM
if they tax you on the "buy" end do they not tax you on the "use" end? If they are double taxing you then the policy makes no sense. If you're only taxed on one end, it can work out to your advantage if you get a raise between buying a using. It should be a wash if your pay remains constant and you're not double taxed.
Title: Re: Buy 2 weeks of vacation at work? Is it worth it?
Post by: SimpleCycle on April 16, 2018, 09:31:41 AM
At my work it is a pre-tax benefit, which means by IRS regulations it cannot be rolled over into the next year, meaning you have to use all your PTO and the purchased week in the calendar year.  We also have a way to use more PTO and pay for it in our first January paycheck, so I just do that if I need extra.