Comp Day

Today is the almighty Comp Day, the day when I learn what my bonus will be for the year's worth of toil. I imagine that I will find out sometime later this afternoon between 3 and 5pm, so if you're reading this early in the morning, keep your fingers crossed for me! The bonus I got last year made me very happy, but as the business has not be doing as well this year (although our firm has held in better than our competitors), I don't think there's as much money to go around. Our bonuses are a substantial part of our compensation, because while the salaries are decent, they're not very impressive alone and don't stretch too far in NYC.

Despite the smaller pool of bonus money this year (I assume), I am optimistic b/c my performance review indicated a dramatic improvement from last year, and as such I am ranked in the 1st quartile of analysts at my firm! I am hoping that this translates into $$.

Effective August 1 is my promotion from analyst to associate, which comes with a 20% raise in my salary!!! That's HUGE!!!! Because of all of my before-tax deductions (FSA, gym membership, transit card, etc.) I'm not sure how many extra dollars this will exactly translate into. Also, I will have maxed out my social security tax for the year, so that's an extra kick to my paycheck! I've only invested about $3k in my 401k this year, so I will be maxing out the remaining ~$12 from my bonus. This will dramatically reduce the amount of cash I have leftover from my bonus, but I purposely kept my monthly contributions low in anticipation of this large mid-year contribution. That means I will have a couple hundred extra dollars each month to play with (aka SAVE) that I was previously contributing to my 401k. Additionally, my share of rent is a little bit lower because my new roommate is paying a bit more than my old one, so that's also extra cash I didn't have. Thus, a few new reasons to love my paycheck on August 15!

Anyway, wish me luck on my bonus... I'm trying to go in with low expectations, but even if I'm disappointed, I need to remember all of the blessings that I have that money cannot buy!