Vacations, house upgrades, lots of margaritas with friends � then August rolls around and you�re at Target trying to buy 3 shopping carts full of supplies and you�re worried if you have enough left in the accounts to survive the rest of summer.
Because many of you have that 1 or even 2 months where you don�t get a paycheck in the summer.
At my first teaching job, I got paid for 10 months of work. At my last teaching job, they paid us 11 months a year. Maybe you�re like me in those two situations or maybe you�re one of the lucky ones who gets 12 paychecks a year. Whatever the case, we want to talk strategies for saving in all of these situations.
10 and 11 months � If we�re not careful, we hit those empty months and the bank account dries up and those 2-3 weeks after school starts till that first paycheck are really tough. Here�s the strategy: Take your total annual paycheck, which in North Carolina is $47,783, a whopping $10,000 less than the national average. 42nd in the nation, only 8 states get paid less, so we�ve gotta really make this work. So dig out your last pay stub and see how much you take home each month.
This is where we gotta do math. Stay with us.
- 10 months monthly takehome = $3,600 x 10 / 12 = $3,000 � this means you�ve gotta save $600 a month away in a fund and don�t touch it so you can survive summer.
- 11 months monthly takehome = $3,272 x 11 / 12 = $3,000 � this means you�ve gotta save $272 a month away in a fund and don�t touch it so you can survive summer.
- 12 months monthly takehome = $3,000 � so just don�t overspend and you should be good for summer
- 10 months = $6,000 / 10 = $600 a month, which means you need to live on $2,400 a month � remember the money you�re saving to survive summer?
- 11 months = $6,000 / 11 = $545 a month
We hope this helps get your mind thinking about how you can take charge of your money a little better. We welcome your ideas too because we�re a community, and we�ve got lots to learn from each other.
Conversation of the Day: What tips/tricks/strategies do you have to make your money last through the summer months?
Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.
