4 Ways to Maximize Your Paycheck

The following list is in no particular order and is certainly not exhaustive.

• 401k
  • At a minimum you should always try to maximize your 401k’s contributions by putting enough aside to your 401k to maximize your employers matching contributions.

    Not all employers give matching contributions, and the amount employers offer to match varies from company to company, but this is often another way to increase your pay by 3% to 10%.

• Stock Purchase Program (ESPP)
  • Most publicly traded companies offer some sort of stock purchase program where a percentage of an employee’s paycheck is used to purchase company stock.

    These plans can vary from a simple straight deduction from the paycheck to purchase stock, or more complexly managed programs where there is a 6month window where an employee contributes to an account each pay check and then the company offers a look-back window to the first week of the 6 month window or the last week of the 6 month window and then a 15% discount on whatever price is lowest.

    Personally, I would never participate in a plan that did not offer a discount on the stock.

• Health Savings Account (HSA)
  • Some companies offer a matching contribution to a company sponsored HSA, if your company offers this — consider taking advantage of this to maximize your pay.
• Flex Spending Accounts (FSA)
  • There are a-lot of types of flexible spending accounts from accounts that allow you to use pre-tax money to spend on healthcare expenses to accounts that allow you to use pre-tax money to pay for childcare.

    Consider your situation, and if any of these accounts would work for you as it can lower your income lost to income tax.

    Get an idea about the various types of FSA’s from this wikipedia article.