I recently heard a story of a young person who after working for many years invests a percentage of pay in a 401K, but after all those years never actually cared to look at the pay stub to see how much money was exiting every pay period. Can you believe this? I look at every pay stub and analyze it to a tee. What did I want to find out? Basically to see all the amounts taken away by the government and how much is being deposited by my employer to my 401K, and I can not fathom a person not checking this or even knowing the amount on a monthly basis. This is the premise behind the What you Dont Know topic in the title.
If this is very shocking to all of you as it was to me when I heard the audacity going on in some people’s minds. But can you blame them for not caring or not being on top of this aspect of money in their life. Unfortunately yes they are partially to blame if for years the employer was not contributing the exact amount that should have been deducted from said person’s pay stub into retirement accounts. Maybe hundreds or thousands of dollars left in the laps of the employer because people were too lazy to check a simple pay stub. Do you think the employer will fix the issue voluntarily? Maybe but I wouldn’t leave it in their hands.
There has been countless stories of employer financial mismanagement where the pay stub amounts were incorrect or the stories of retirement money not being deposited. Granted some of those stories involve simple easy to fix payroll errors, but if the employee is not aware of it who will catch those errors? It is a simple fact of life we cannot disregard because of all the other things we have to deal with in life.
Simple Pay stub Research:
-Check your exemptions on the pay stub
-Multiply the weekly or bi-weekly amount and make sure it adds up to annual income.
-See how much is going to the government in taxes
-See how much is going to your retirement accounts.
-Analyze the difference between gross and net ( Amount should be equal to tax deductions and 401K contributions)
-Make sure your Social Security number is accurate. ( Social Security Retirement figures depend on this)
The simple easy check list above will help you avoid major errors with your money later. I know it can be hard to take time out for things that might not be of interest to you, but pay stubs should always be analyzed with every new job you get.
What you Don’t Know can hurt you in the long run.
Become Informed with Finances.
Comment and let us know if you have caught any errors on your pay stub?
RichUncle EL
I’m still a dork and check my paycheck numbers all the time. It helps that my pay amount is the same every time, so I would know if something is up.
Cool that you have the love for the money to still check it all the time. I did as well when it was in a paper format but now that it is electronically prepared I do it only once a month.
I once had a supervisor tell me and look at me in a pointed way…"I sure hope I calculated everyone's hours correct"…
I still don''t know years later if he shorted me or not, we had a punch clock and it was too complicated to figure out
how many hours exactily you worked every week, I was not depending on the money, just play money, so I wasn't too worried about it. But i still wonder….hmmmm