Author Topic: What do you do with overtime money?  (Read 11914 times)

StartingEarly

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What do you do with overtime money?
« on: September 08, 2014, 06:25:36 PM »
Do you tend to save it all or see it as money to spend freely because you worked extra hard for it?

Beric01

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2014, 06:44:08 PM »
This is Mustachianism here. Every additional dollar you get is one more dollar towards FIRE. I just plop any bonuses/etc. into investments like I do with all other "excess" pay. Why should the fact that you earned it while overtime make a difference?

RWD

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2014, 07:34:53 PM »
I would do the same thing as I do with non-overtime money. Equality for all dollars.

Workinghard

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2014, 07:55:21 PM »
My OT goes to additional savings. My husband uses his for wants versus needs-nothing extravagant just misc things. He also uses it to buy Christmas gifts for his family which helps our regular budget.

Lis

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2014, 08:10:07 PM »
I'm still early in my journey. Right now, all overtime goes towards my student loans to help them pay off of ASAP. Once those will be paid off, I think the next step will be saving up for a down payment on a house.

I do admit I some overtime money this summer went to a long weekend trip I'll be taking this weekend. Very excited for this! Not something I would have done without overtime. My regular salary is divvied up accordingly until my loans are paid off, so this 'unexpected' money went to travel.

Workinghard

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2014, 08:13:52 PM »
My OT goes to additional savings. My husband uses his for wants versus needs-nothing extravagant just misc things. He also uses it to buy Christmas gifts for his family which helps our regular budget.

Before I became hyper-focused on saving, OT paid for vacations, outings, painting our home, etc.

YoungInvestor

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2014, 08:38:25 PM »
I see income as something I'm trying to maximize, and expenses as something I'm trying to minimize. I don't separate my cash flow incomes.

boarder42

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2014, 10:14:32 PM »
OT is savings. I avg 5k in it per year this essentially cuts one year off the years I have to work. Your concept of "I worked hard for I deserve extra stuff" is the principal normal people apply to all money they earn. Y do you need the extra stuff or whatever it is you're buying with ot money

Primm

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2014, 11:34:17 PM »
Same thing I do with all my income. Helps that I work shift work, so two pays are never the same anyway.

Left

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2014, 11:54:18 PM »
hm, I don't even know how much I get paid O_O, I check my pay stubs every once in a while, I know I get paid at least 40 hours, if that much gets put into my bank account on pay day then I don't worry about it. If I work some OT, I know my next pay check is bigger but I don't really care :S I treat it like any other paycheck. Same with when I work PRN but I haven't for a few months.

But then again, I only work 1-2 hours OT every few months, I try not to but if company really needs me IE someone is sick, I'll stay an extra hour or two until someone else comes in. Plus I'm expensive to pay OT (company pays twice base rate for OT instead of 1.5) so they try not to give OT to anyone.

theadvicist

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2014, 01:57:29 AM »
Every penny of bonuses goes into savings. Two reasons:

1) Because when you're saving 50% of your income you don't need it to live and on, so it's the logical place, and

2) Because if we started buying 'treats' with it, I would see that as lifestyle inflation. And lifestyle inflation is the beginning of the road to McMansion, leased-car, high-stress hell (IMO).

TheNorwegianGuy

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2014, 04:04:28 AM »
I do what I do with all "extra money", buy more stocks in FUTURE TIME FREEDOM INC! Overtime now, means undertime later ;)

Rienk

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2014, 04:16:38 AM »
I treat overtime and bonus as part of income and don't think of it as a separate pile of money to direct somewhere. If you want to "reward" yourself with a Playstation 4 it's in my opinion better to just increase your entertainment budget while maintaining an objective and high level view of your finances. Thinking of my budget and income per year instead of per month also really helps me with this.

peabody58

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2014, 08:34:20 AM »
Padding my retirement/Vanguard accounts [13 months away].

trailrated

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2014, 09:06:19 AM »
I keep spreadsheets with all expected income, when anything else comes in it goes into the house downpayment fund.

boarder42

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Re: What do you do with overtime money?
« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2014, 10:34:24 AM »
fortunately i work for a company that gives 20-30% of salary in bonus. plus i get about 6% more in OT a year and all that is straight savings plus more from base salaries.  it makes it super easy to save when money comes in this way.