Only 21 Paychecks ?: How To Survive the Summer Without One

All new professional staff members will receive their yearly salary in 21 equal payments. The first payment will be in September, and the last will be in June. There will be no paychecks issued during the summer months.

How you manage to pay the bills and enjoy an economically viable July and August will depend on your individual circumstances. However, if your salary alone must carry you through the summer, here's one way to plan ahead.

As soon as possible join the Lexington Town Employees' Credit Union which is located at 3 Fletcher Avenue in the center of town near the School Administration Building (the White House). The phone number is 781-862-9011.

Then arrange with the Credit Union to have an amount of money deducted from each paycheck. These deductions will accumulate throughout the year. When summer comes (or at any time during the year) and you need money, just drop by the Credit Union where you can get a check in a matter of minutes.

How much you have deducted from each check is completely up to you, but one idea is to figure an amount that will provide you with 26 equal take-home amounts as if you received a paycheck every two weeks for the entire year including the summer. The way to do this is to see what your take-home pay is on the first payday in September after taxes, retirement contributions, etc. have been deducted. Multiply that amount times 21 which will get you the total number of dollars you will take home during the school year. It won't be precisely correct because your union dues will be deducted over 18 checks from October to early June. However, it will be very close.

Then take that total take-home amount and divide it by 26. The difference between the amount you actually take home in September and this new number is what you can have deducted from each of your 21 checks to ensure a steady, predictable amount of cash in your pocket every two weeks.

Here's an example for a teacher who earns $44,570 per year. Dividing this salary by 21 pay days gives a net of $2035. After deducting taxes, insurance, pension contribution, etc., the take home pay in September is $1350. Multiply that times 21 to get $28,350 which is what the teacher can expect to take home from September to June.

To prepare for the summer, however, divide the $28,350 by 26 to get $1090. The difference between the September take-home and this new amount is $260.

The teacher then goes to the credit union and opens an account with $260 from her first pay check and arranges to have $260 deducted from each subsequent check for the rest of the year. $260 X 21 pay days = $5460 that will be in the credit union as of the last payday in June. Thus, the teacher has enough money in the Credit Union to withdraw $1092 every 2 weeks during the summer. (Or at any pace she chooses; it's her money.)

A very simple worksheet...

a. September take-home pay = $________________

b. X 21 = $________________

c. divided by 26 = $________________

d. line a - line c = $________________

This last number is the amount to have deducted each pay day.