Yesterday I got my paycheck with my new "raise": I just signed up for the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). This is a benefit that some companies offer where you can buy company stock at a discount. In my case it is a 10% discount. The only way that you can do this however, is by having the company take a percentage of what I make directly out of my paycheck, up to a maximum of 15%. So you can see, since the company allows me to use 15% of my paycheck to purchase stock at a 10% discount, essentially I am giving myself a 1.5% raise! (Caveat: This assumes that the stock price remains the same - if the stock price rises, I would make more than this, if it goes down, well....you get the picture.) For a person making $50,000, 1.5% translates into $750 - not bad!
It took me awhile to do this however, because I don't (who does?) have a spare 15% in my paycheck to be taken out and not run short. So I have had to reserve money in a separate account dedicated to funding my ESPP. As money is taken out of my paycheck to buy the stock, I replentish my checking accounts from the reserve. Twice a year I will liquidate the stock in the ESPP account and replace the money in the reserve to start the process again! Doing this twice a year would mean I need to have an account with approximately $3750 to take advantage of the ESPP.
A lot of companies offer benefits like an ESPP, and even more offer company matches on 401(k) contributions. Consider it giving yourself a raise to take advantage of this free money. By fully utilizing a company match on your 401(k) contributions of 50% up to 6% of your salary, you essentially have given yourself a 3% raise (in addition to any taxes that you would defer.) Make sure you fully know what type of benefits your company offers, and then use them! A spare $750 or $1000 adds up to real money before you know it!
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