I recently received a promotion at work, and instead of the customary increase in salary, my boss offered me something else: A new car. At first, I wasn’t sure about it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a good deal this was for me, and what a good deal it was for the company.
The company I work for has to have a vehicle at the office to do client transports in, and the old vehicle (a silver car in so-so shape) was being sold to one of our employees who fell in love with it and wanted to buy it. So my boss was on the hunt for a new vehicle. She picked out a Ford Escape 2002 with all of the upgrades, and bought it on the spot. When she came back from the car lot, she made me an offer: She wanted me to drive the Escape home every night, drive it to my parent’s house–drive it wherever I wanted to, and she would pay for all of the gas and the insurance on it. Cha-ching! I realized that not only would this save me a lot of money in regards to insurance and gas, but also the fact that I could sell my old vehicle and apply that money to debt meant this was going to be a huge windfall for me.
I was talking to my mother-in-law about the whole situation, and she pointed out something to me that I hadn’t even considered: This was a payraise that wouldn’t show up on my paystub. If I had wanted to buy this car instead of having my company buy it, my boss would have had to raise my pay considerably for me to be to
1) Pay for the note on the vehicle (including all of that nasty interest on it—any interest is nasty!)
2) Pay for the insurance and gas, and
3) Do all of this with after-tax dollars. Vehicles, unlike houses, depreciate, and at a very rapid rate. The less money you can spend in your lifetime on vehicles, the higher your net worth will end up being. So although I won’t have a vehicle to sell if I ever leave the company (if I quit, the SUV doesn’t go with me) the fact that I won’t have had to spend money in the interim on a vehicle makes it a great deal for me.
And of course, it is a good deal for the company. My boss was already going to have to buy a vehicle, was already going to have to pay for the gas and the insurance on it. She is doing nothing more than she was going to do anyway–why not have me drive it and kill two birds with one stone by not having to give me a payraise also? It was one of those wonderful win-win situations you wish would happen more often.
So the next time your boss offers you an unusual “raise” I highly suggest looking at it from all angles. These side benefits may just save you thousands of dollars and you may end up with a win-win of your own!