If they would fucking tell me how much the actual bonus was ahead of me deciding whether or not to yank the 401K, that would be great. Somehow not knowing the amount of money I'd be putting away is really inhibiting me making this decision either way.
It's safer to save, deeply obviously, but I depleted my savings account buying the car, and I need to pad that back up to a level that makes me comfortable again too.
Plus I want to buy myself something! I did good! But I have no idea how much is coming.
eta: My point is that I
don't
have to have everything taken out if I don't want to, and I'm looking for perspective.
you guys have 401K taken out of your bonuses
Yep. My bonus ("short-term incentive") is treated like just another paycheck for most purposes, including my company matching the amount being contributed to the 401(k) -- a bonus on the bonus. The only difference is that there are no deductions for medical/dental/vision/HSA plans.
Jess makes a good point, it always seemed like the withholding tax rate was higher for bonuses, for some reason. So if your 401k deposit is pre-tax, doing that rather than regular savings account has some benefit.
Eta: and we chose to go that way, to be clear.
Seems like you might as well not have them take out the 401(k), assuming it's not going to be a life-changing amount of money, and putting that much more in your short-term savings. You still stay on track with whatever your plan was around your annual 401(k) contribution.
Thing #2--there
might
be a raise, and that
might
change things. Seriously, why so taunty and close-lipped?
Still, either way, I'm looking for 1 month of art class and a cloak. That's in my budget for March.
Yeah, I always made bonuses extra-budgetary because we never knew how much they were going to be until the check showed up. My standard way of dealing with them was to put the usual paycheck-% into the 401k, half the take-home bonus into savings, and the other half immediately squanderable. Not knowing what we could squander on was super tantalizing.
Back when pine trees were muttering about those new angiosperms messing up the neighborhood, I had a boyfriend with a waterbed. I don't remember the bed being a problem. (Maybe it helps that I don't get motion sick.)
Our bonuses do not have 401k contributions taken out by default - you have to elect that specifically every year if you want it. So those are the emails we get. The idea of suspending your regular contributions so that 401k didn't hit the bonus seems kind of misguided. How many people forget or delay reupping?
