Earlier today I found out that I will be getting my incentive bonus. The company posted a loss for the year because of some accounting realizations that I’m not going to go in to because, well, it’s none of your business.
So the good news is, I still have a job. I’m getting an incentive bonus even if it’s still just the minimum (5% of my annual salary). I was hoping for the maximum benefit, which would have been 15% of my annual salary. I know that that hope was probably unrealistic based on the way the economy has gone. But, alas, I tend to be unrealistic sometimes.
I will be satisfied with my 5%.
I suppose the question then becomes, what to do with my bonus? It’s still a pretty hefty chunk of money. In fact, it’s probably enough to pay off my car.
As tempting as that prospect is, one of the reasons I bought my car was to improve my credit rating. My credit was bruised and battered for a few years because of, well, because I trusted the wrong people. We’ll just leave it at that.
So making a payment (and a hefty one at that) and never being late has a tendency to look pretty good on a credit report. That being said, I’d really like to be out from under the payment too.
I think what I’ll do is refinance my loan at a lower rate at my own bank, borrowing against my incentive, and then have them pull the money each month out of my savings account.
Effectively, I wouldn’t be paying for it any longer. It’d just be automatically coming out of my incentive payment (which would be collecting interest) in the savings account.
But then again… there’s a motorcycle I really want too. Or I could do the intelligent thing and refinance and trade my vehicle in for a lower mileage, higher MPG vehicle.
Decisions, decisions.