There are many types of pay schedules ranging from daily to annual; however, the most common way employees receive their wages is semi-weekly or biweekly. If you are one of those individuals that get paid biweekly we can show you how to give yourself a little bonus twice a year.
Your Check vs Payroll Costs: Guess Which Wins?
Money is a major factor that controls how we live. Well when it comes to determining how you will get paid-money wins again! Have you ever wondered why so many people wait weeks or months for their paychecks…the answer seems to be payroll costs. A company that pays its employees weekly will have higher payroll costs than a company that pays its employees on an annual basis. Unfortunately, for most companies, many employees would like to get paid as soon as possible making semi-monthly (getting paid twice per month) and biweekly pay schedules the obvious middle grounds between employee compensation and reduced payroll cost for a(n) employeer.
Semi-Monthly Vs Biweekly
Getting paid semi-monthly and biweekly may seem like the same thing but in actuality they are not. As stated earlier, semi-monthly employees would recieve a paycheck twice per month resulting in twenty-four (24) paychecks a year. Biweekly pay schedules, on-the-other-hand, yield paychecks twenty-six (26) times a year (sometimes 27 during leap years). How? Well according to Grace Ferguson by dividing 2080 (the yearly number of hours a full time salaried employee is compensated for) by 80 (the number of hours a full time salaried employee is compensated for each pay period) you get 26 paychecks.
Let’s Put Everything Together
If semi-monthly and biweekly are the most common pay schedules that mean most families operate under a budget of two checks a month. In other words under normal conditions you live on two checks a month. Biweekly employees get twenty-six paychecks which means that twice a year they receive three checks a month instead of two. With that being said you should view those two paychecks as ‘bonuses’ or ‘extra money’. For example, if you make $3000 a month ($1500 biweekly) and your expenses are $2000 you would have $1000 left at the end of the month. However if you were to factor in the same expenses with that extra check you would have $2500 left over. Think about what you can do with that money. You can use that ‘extra money’ to pay down your debt(s) faster, build up a sizable savings, make improvements, fund investments, etc.
Conclusion
Unfortunately in our modern economy it’s rare to get paid daily (despite what the Bible commands) which means that being disciplined with your finances is more important than ever. And although viewing a paycheck as a “bonus” or “extra money” may seem like a stretch it can be very beneficial when it comes to adding flexiblity to your budget. For those of you that are on a biweekly pay schedule you receive three checks a month twice per year-if you use that extra check to build your savings or paying down your debt(s) you can give yourself a nice financial edge.
