Is that a light I see?

I think I might finally be starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel named "crappy economy". Yesterday was my company's Christmas lunch and year end meeting. While they didn't go extra on the Christmas bonus, as I had hoped (got $1500 net after taxes, which is still awesome) they did offer some potential good news for next year and the following year. They are going to start re-implementing our sales incentive bonus program. We haven't had this since the end of 2008.  At that point we were all making an extra 20% of our salary each month. For me, that was an extra $930, so you can imagine how nice that was for the 2 years it happened. All employees get this, whether you are a salesperson or a receptionist.

Starting in January - if we make the sales goal they have set we will all get an extra 10% of our salary as a bonus - paid out mid-year and the end of next year. WoooHoooo!!!! That is potentially an extra $6600 to me next year.  The owners and management seem confident that we will not have any trouble making the sales goal, so that is very happy, encouraging news.  They also said that if that goal is met, it will put the company in a great position, to put back into place our 20% bonus program starting in 2014.  So, all I have to say is "go get 'em salespeople" :-)

As I did last year, I told DH the Christmas bonus was $500. I debated all the way home on whether to tell him about the whole $1500 or not. Just with telling him it was $500 I could see his brain start to spin on what things he could spend it on before he said "I suppose you already have it budgeted for stuff....". I just laughed and said yes, of course.  The extra $1000 is going straight into savings for those emergencies that, without fail, pop up. Setting aside that extra $1000 last year, without telling him, so he could spend it, was one of the smartest things I have done. It gave me the extra money I needed to help pay for all his doctor bills and prescriptions. It gave me some peace of mind, knowing it was there, if I needed it, and it kept me from being more stressed out about all the medical bills than I already was. So in the end, that is what made my decision to not tell him and just put away the extra $1000.