If you get paid to be in academe–that is, if you are a member of the faculty (full or part-time, tenure-track or not), staff, or administration of a college or university, or if you are a graduate student with a stipend or assistantship, then there is one thing you need to be doing regularly:
Open your paystub. If you get an annual statement of benefits (years toward sabbatical, etc.), open it. If you have retirement benefits and get a statement of accounts, open it.
It is amazing how often people in higher education–smart people–overlook this critical step. Last summer, at the AAUP summer institute, several people in conversation cited the example of people would call their union leadership . . . in order to discover their salary!
Your paycheck has lots of information, all of which is susceptible to error. (For example: Pay. Withholding. Leave balances.) If someone inadvertently clicks the wrong button in a spreadsheet, all of a sudden it looks as though you have 4 years of credit toward longevity pay, rather than 7. Did you get promoted this year? Was your raise calculated accurately? When you got a raise, if you got one, did you tweak the amount you divert into savings?
Here’s just one, totally trivial example: Technically, there are 26.1 biweekly payperiods in a calendar year. This year, state employees in Connecticut are furloughed 3 days, and, for some unions, our HR is spreading out that temporary pay cut over the entire year. Helpful! But the calculation was based on the assumption that there are only 26 pay periods in a year, rather than 26.1. Which is legit–but if you were expecting to to be based on the usual formula, then your paycheck might’ve been different.
Most of the time, everything’s fine. But no system is foolproof, and the onus is on you to figure it out.
Another, not-so-trivial example: the shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution retirement plans–in effect, the turn away from pensions to 401k, 403b, and other such plans–means that you assume all the risk, and need to pay attention to the statements that you get. (For a terrifying provocative look at the implications of this shift, check out this page about Connecticut retirement plans.) Do representatives from your retirement plan come to campus? Have you met with them . . . ever?
Academe is plagued by the notion that teaching is a vocation, and with a weird confusion that the “life of the mind” means “I shouldn’t bother myself about money.” But it’s also probably your livelihood, or you would like it to be. So it’s worth paying attention to the cash.
A tool that has been very handy for keeping track of your money is Mint. It’s free, it’s automatic, and it offers reports that you don’t need to be an accountant to understand. (They were recently acquired, so everyone’s hoping it remains useful and free and easy to use.)
Enough hectoring for 1 night. Here’s a zombie chaser.
[Photo by flickr user pfala / CC licensed]
Comments
1. Brian Croxall - October 02, 2009 at 12:24 pm
While I use Mint, if people are worried about its acquisition by Intuit, they should also check Wesabe, which I've heard good things about.
2. Don Schaffner - October 04, 2009 at 12:06 am
Many academics have their retirement in TIAA CREF. A few years ago I was contacted by a financial planner that works with lots of academics. He convinced me to allow him to manage my money. I'm gradually moving my retirement funds from TIAA CREF to ING. Best move I could have made.
3. Rana - October 05, 2009 at 12:36 am
I don't actually get pay stubs - it's just deposited automatically, and they don't send me any paperwork.
Probably I should look into this and see whether it's standard policy or not.
4. Jason B. Jones - October 05, 2009 at 12:51 am
I'm pretty sure they have to give you a way to keep track of everything (for example, taxes and whatnot). Your state labor office/board/commission-type-thingie would have a definitive answer, but my impression was that accounting for pay was a legal requirement.
(Though I will say that I would love to have the option to have it arrive electronically!)
5. Deb Coe - October 06, 2009 at 11:27 am
We get an email notification of the direct deposit. To look at our paystubs, we log into a secure website at the university. You may have something like that, too. You should ask the person who runs your department's business office if you need help figuring out how to see your deposit information.
6. William Patrick Wend - October 15, 2009 at 05:18 pm
Don, why would you suggest switching away from TIAA?
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