Yay! The yearly performance bonus that my company gives out is coming on Monday!
The bonus is based on a set of goals for the company. If the company reaches all of the goals, then we get 100% of the bonus. Each goal is set a little differently, so one might only count for 10% and another for 50%. In any case, we got the whole 100% of the bonus. The whole bonus means that I’ll be getting my regular paycheck on Monday along with the bonus check for 100 hours. It’ll be a tish more than what my regular check is. Basically, an extra paycheck this month.
My wife and I have been debating what to do with the money. Of course, due to the timing of the bonus, the idea of being a little more generous during the holiday season always comes up, but we’ve luckily talked most of our family and friends into spending limits so that’s out. Most likely (we haven’t decided entirely) we’ll use most of the bonus for paying off debt. We’ve got one credit card that would almost be taken care of by the bonus, so it’ll be getting a check soon too. I think we’ll save a bit of it aside for some home improvements that we’ve got planned as well.
What about you? Did you get your bonus this year or did the economy ruin it for you? If you did get it, how do you plan on using it? Or, how does the lack of your bonus affect your budget?
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Well I would say – the economy indirectly killed our bonus potential this year.
We missed some metrics for bonus and the boeing strike impacted others… so the net effect sounds like no bonus this year. Oh well, I figure bonuses are nice, but one should never plan on it till it is in hand.
Same thing I try to do with checks I occasionally get from the fire dept… don’t plan on them at all (be all but impossible to budget based on that small amount of income since it is dependent on things burning) and then I figure, it is a nice surprise when I do. Extra dinner, more towards a bill, just like a bonus.