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[clean]

after 30 years I came up with being almost $25,000 better off taking salary over 9 months instead of 12,

yea, but if I gave up my dollar a day Big Gulp habit, id have  over $30K after 30 years at 6%... so I think that we can easily slip into money illusion. [$30/ month, compounded monthly].  And what about those, "Give up your starbucks and be worth $XX when you retire" articles.  People like their coffee, and they wont give it up!

A problem with "saving a dollar a day" is that we never do.  That is so small a number it falls through the holes in my budget butterfly net.  As good as I am at budgetting, that extra $35 I get next month is lost in the noise of my non-constant electric bill, water bill, cell phone charges, an extra meal out, or my 10 day break before school starts.  I suppose that some small bit of it may make its way to some retirement/savings account, but it wont be deposited into a "retirement cruise cause I budgeted right" account.

Time value games are fun to play with, but the reality is that unless I give that money a name it will go somewhere else.

Oh, and Eddie, Be careful with the TVM games... they can haunt you too.  IF instead of taking my date to see Fuzzy (harry) Potter this weekend and dumping $50 on tickets, popcorn and 'dinner' and Chili's, I had saved the money, Id have $301 in 30 years at 6% (compounded monthly).... Was she worth $301 in my 'golden years'?  ....Hell,  (que evil laugh) I m not sure she was worth $50 on Saturday!

[almost_done]

To return to the original question (although the compound interest examples are arguably more interesting):

The "summer salary" check was dated June 29, 2007 and my contract began on July 1. So I suspect that FICA and SS and such were not taken out as I was not an employee at time check was issued (a technicality, I realize, that likely allowed the school to spend down resources from last financial year).

I'm just wondering what my summer salary check will look like next year as I can only imagine scenarios where it will be less than this year's stipend due to taxes, benefits and the like.

[eddie_haskell]

Well, if it is a state school, most states end their fiscal year on June 30th so I do smell a budgetary rat here.  You are, at minimum, getting screwed out of the employer's OASDI contribution (Social Security), so you are not better off with this result (subject, of course, to the time value of money on the deferred withholding tax, which you could handle with your W-4 form anyway).

[bigsky]

Quote from: clean on Today at 02:53:37 PM
I confess that I do take the money in 9 vs. 12.  However, I "am pretty on top of things financially", so I dont have a problem with the budget.

I knew there was more to it than your recommendation! Now I feel better.