Posted in Money Mondays
A million years ago when I worked at Arthur Andersen & Co., my co-workers used to call me the Vacation Queen. When I first started working at The Firm, one of my mentors explained to me how it was possible to get up to six weeks of vacation time. In addition to the traditional two weeks of vacation, it was possible to convert some of your overtime pay to vacation time if you so desired. Oh, I so desired. Not everyone did, some preferred to increase the balance of their bank accounts.
I preferred to increase the balance of my vacation account. So I always banked the maximum 120 hours to vacation time instead of dollars. But that savvy mentor explained to me that if you took vacation time before you actually accrued it each year, you could “go negative” in your vacation bank and then earn your way out of “the hole” with each overtime hour you worked.
We worked a lot of overtime at Arthur Andersen.
So I would do this: take a week of vacation at the beginning of the fiscal year, before I’d accrued any time, use the first 40 hours of overtime to pay them back, bank the next 120 hours of overtime, and then take that and my regular two weeks before the year was out. Grand total of vacation time: six weeks. Grand total dollars earned from overtime: not too grand.
But I preferred time over money, even back then. Not everyone felt the same way. Some worker bees didn’t even use all their vacation time and actually got PAID FOR VACATION TIME THEY NEVER TOOK. (I put that in caps because it was something I never understood back then, and have to shout it to try and get my head around it even now.)
Which brings me to the subject of early retirement. If you retire early, you’re making the same decision, opting for the vacation bank account instead of the actual bank account. More work, more money. Less work, more time.
And that’s when a young tax accountant with an early retirement personality was born.
Related Posts:
Underachieve Your Way to Retirement
Retirement and the Magic Number
How to Practice Retirement While You’re Still Working
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Syd,
I love this blog and look forward to reading it prior to each posting. Any thoughts of putting it into a book?
Posted by: Linda Vaughn | October 11, 2011 at 12:08 PM
Banking time was unheard of when I was articling. They implemented it shortly before I stopped working at a Big Firm (8 at the time I quit I think) but I think it was at a 50% rate (they finally had to do something because of the huge turnover rate and whoever was left behind had to pick up even more work.)
I would frequently lament to my son that I would have made a better hourly wage at McDonald's. He didn't quite get it and thought it would be quite a coup for me to get a job at Mickey D's though.
I've had tons of money paid out through not taken vacation time. It's a personality flaw, I admit it. :-)
Posted by: Jacq | October 11, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Linda: Thank you so much! I would indeed love to write a book--an optimistic rendering of retired life to counter all the doom and gloom that dominates the retirement news of late. Maybe some day I'll get to that . . .
Jacq: Does that mean they didn't even PAY you overtime? I can't believe the 50% rate would be legal, but what do I know. Now on that paid for vacation time issue, definitely time to change your ways . . .
Posted by: Retired Syd | October 11, 2011 at 12:49 PM
Yay! A book!
Nope, no OT. Everyone was base salary at the two firms I worked at. Hence why I call one of them Toilet and Douche. I think the CA programs were more tightly hired up here at one point, and it's not like we had a union or something - just slave labour that the mean old farts took advantage of under some kind of "pay your dues" mentality - aka baby boomers gone bad.
I feel I am somehow mending my ways by contracting and getting paid hourly the last couple of years. At least if I feel struck by the overachieving compulsion (doesn't happen as often and sometimes if I lay down, it passes), I get paid for it.
Posted by: Jacq | October 11, 2011 at 03:29 PM
Jacq: Ok, good to know you've got that one under control now. (And I may have to steal that line sometime, how you combat overachieving, very funny.)
Posted by: Retired Syd | October 11, 2011 at 03:38 PM
I'm certain other retirees didn't set out to be faced with gloom and doom. Consider yourself to be a very smart, savvy, fortunate and lucky woman.
I only wish you much continued retirement success.
Keep those stories coming. I enjoy them so!
Thanks.
Posted by: morrison | October 12, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Morrison: You got that right, I'm a very lucky girl indeed!
Posted by: Retired Syd | October 12, 2011 at 11:45 AM
nice painted piggies. but please don't forget to bring back some seashells it's the souvenir that never goes bad. i see a lot of seashells in these last two blog entries.
Posted by: fred doe | October 13, 2011 at 09:27 AM
Ah! They're really good at it! Those who do the same should read this, especially those who retire early. Retirement is a chance for you to bring out your personality, right?
Posted by: Drew Harrison | October 15, 2011 at 07:52 AM
Hi, Syd... I can certainly identify with your being the "vacation queen." For I was "the great vacationer." Bill
Posted by: Bill Birnbaum | October 19, 2011 at 11:42 AM