How do you handle raises?

brij2006 · July 2013

It's time we liven up this board a bit.

What does everyone do with their raises? Add to investments, save, pay off debt, spend it?

Apollo11235 · July 2013

We just don't get raises, so that handles that, I guess.

No really, though, we're expecting to make more once we graduate in a couple years, and our (my?) plan is to continue to live like grad students so we can save aggressively for a house wherever we end up moving.

ETA: If we were to get a raise right now, we would put the extra money towards DH's SLs.

brij2006 · July 2013

Apollo11235:
We just don't get raises, so that handles that, I guess.

I thought of this when I posted it. That's a common thing in this economy.

H had his review today, and got a descent raise. So we're trying to figure out whether to put it in savings (aka future fertility treatments), or apply it toward his school loans.

Apollo11235 · July 2013

brij2006:
Apollo11235:
We just don't get raises, so that handles that, I guess.
I thought of this when I posted it. That's a common thing in this economy.
H had his review today, and got a descent raise. So we're trying to figure out whether to put it in savings (aka future fertility treatments), or apply it toward his school loans.

Yay, congrats Mr. Brij!

I know you've said before that school loans are your priority at the moment. That's our focus, too, which is why I said we'd put a hypothetical raise towards those. You're in a different situation than us fertility/TTC-wise, though, so I know it's more complicated than that.

Some things to consider: You're young - are you determined to start treatments ASAP, or would you be willing to wait while you save up money? How much is the raise? If you split it, would you be able to make significant progress toward both goals? Or, maybe you can save it all for treatments and plan to put a large sum towards the loans if you don't end up needing it all to get pregnant?

SmrBrd2012 · July 2013

Usually the raise I get is only enough to go towards increasing health insurance or rent costs. H just got a better paying job though so now we're aggressively saving for a house down payment.

orangehills · July 2013

I put it into savings! We are already living within our means fun wise, so since we are beefing up savings, everything just goes into savings.

CuriousKiddosMama · July 2013

As a teacher, my average raise a year was like $250, so it was barely noticed.

My husband on the other hand gets decent raises sometimes. We try to plan and do something with those. Often the money gets put towards retirement, or saving for some upcoming goal (currently that is new carpet for the house). We do the same thing with any bonuses he gets (sometimes he gets one and sometimes he doesn't, it depends on how good the company did that year).

For us it is about feeling like we are doing something with the money. We feel like we are living comfortably right now, and yes anyone can always spend extra money, but we have a bunch of long term goals that are more important to us right now than stuff.

I like PP suggestion. Would it be possible to use some for student loans and some for saving for fertility treatments?

SURFERxGIRL · July 2013

I got my first raise in 5 years on Friday and you can't believe how excited I was! I work for a real estate company so things have been tight, and even though it's only a couple thousand dollars, I'm happy to take it! We're planning on putting it towards a trip to Brazil next year to visit my family.

H gets raises, COL adjustments and a big bonus at the end of every year, and we pretty much always put that into Savings too. We don't have any debt besides our mortgage, so we're lucky there, but H wants to buy a truck in the near future when his little sports car finally dies so we're saving up to pay cash for that.

It's rare that we go out and just spend the extra money although we did purchase 2 new recliners last month as a birthday present to me and a celebration of H's raise.

Oh, and congrats on the raise! Like PPs have suggested, is splitting the amount from the raise to put towards your goals feasible? Depending on your time tables for those goals that might be a good thing to consider...

brij2006 · July 2013

Apollo11235:
Some things to consider: You're young - are you determined to start treatments ASAP, or would you be willing to wait while you save up money? How much is the raise? If you split it, would you be able to make significant progress toward both goals? Or, maybe you can save it all for treatments and plan to put a large sum towards the loans if you don't end up needing it all to get pregnant?

We haven't decided yet on our "timeline" for IF. We know it will likely be another 6-9 months before we get the rest of the tests done. So we will need $2-3k for those. This raise will bring in about $200/month extra. We are already putting an extra $200/month toward H's SL's, but another $200/month will definitely help.

MommyLiberty5013 · July 2013

No raises for me.

DH gets one annually as it is written into his work contract - they've ranged from 4% to 8% to 13%.

We typically use them to save, but also our COL is higher due to our relocation and increasing our family size. So, some of the raise has gone to those types of things. and hasn't been noticed.

sparklerose · July 2013

I get an average of 3-5% a year, the last two years we have put it in our emergency fund savings. DH hasnt had a raise in ages.

ta78 · July 2013

H gets a small yearly raise, but no longer gets a COL increase. It's only about 100 a month, so we just add it to savings.

ashleybunny8 · July 2013

My last "raise" was a laughable .06%. *eye roll*

If either of us were to get a substantial raise, we would split the extra money in half. 50% would go to savings, and 50% would be added to our spending money.

ETA: DH stared a new job today and is making roughly 30% more than he used to. We are using most of his first few paychecks to pay down our credit cards. We recently bought a house and have been buying "big ticket" items (washer/dryer, lawnmower, furniture, etc.). Once we are settled, we will be splitting the money into savings and spending money.

MrsAshleyH10 · July 2013

H's is usually only 1%, which taken up with COL increases... With mine, we increase the amount paid toward debt. Some day it will go to savings.

anssett · July 2013

We add 10% to our spending money and the rest to savings.

brij2006 · July 2013

anssett:
We add 10% to our spending money and the rest to savings.

That's a good idea. Neither one of us have increased our spending money with raises, since we started our jobs 4 years ago. The raises have always been strictly savings, investments, or debt.

jessica490 · July 2013

I got a 2.7 percent raise last month so I put 2 percent extra into my 401k. I may add another percent once I see what my new paycheck amount will be. H gets raises every year but I need to convince him to add more to this 401 as well.

wife07mom09 · July 2013

when we get the small increases I roll them straight into 401K so I never see them

Wulfgar · July 2013

I am suppose to get a promotion sometime this year with a decent bump up in pay (I am thinking 5 to 10K range). That is my dilemma, we have a lot of home repairs that will need to get done in the near future, we want to have a second child, I need to save for retirement, and we need to pay off student loans.

Depending on my actual raise, I am going to put a good chunk into savings for home repairs (new roof, kitchen cabinets ( they are about 60 years old and falling apart), water proofing the basement, create a room out of the attic) and bump up my retirement account by a percent. The rest will be put towards my smallest student loan and our other savings account.

mana8503 · July 2013

It goes directly to debt. We might have a nice dinner out to celebrate. H had been averaging more than usual with new bonus incentives, so I just recalculated our spreadsheet to see how much more we can throw at our debt. It makes me happy

irishfemme · July 2013

Typically, we allocate the money somewhere else, primarily to debt repayment or savings. We are currently trying to aggressively pay off my private student loan, and I will get a raise when my new contract starts next month, so that is probably where I will plan to spend it. Neither of us gets huge raises, but every little bit helps.

How do you handle raises?

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