Sign on bonus

[Brains428]

I recently signed a new contract and negotiated a modest sign on bonus. I’m coming right out of a radiology subspecialty fellowship, so the boost to the pocket book is exciting. What did you all do with the split to buy something nice but not squander it all away?

[ticker]

0.25%- Celebratory dinner with my wife

10%- Charity

15%- Held aside for taxes

Blew the rest on what I thought would make me happiest

 

... a lower student loan balance.

[Peds]

peds doesnt get a sign on bonus.

[climbhigh]

Mine went straight to savings. Plan on using it to pay off student loans once I become established in my practice and the income stream is consistent.

[RogueDadMD]

 

Peds wrote:

peds doesnt get a sign on bonus.

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I work for a pretty stingy university and I got a sign on bonus

[MaxPower]

Mine went towards the down payment on my house. Put 10% down, which, along with a smaller second mortgage helped me get out of paying PMI on my 15 year mortgage. Not exciting, but wasn’t squandered. This was one of the WCI tenets we violated right off the bat—buying a home out of fellowship. It was in an area we knew, and I’ve been at my job for over 3 years already so I guess it worked out OK. Home value has also gone up by over $100k in 3 years.

[WCIFanGirl]

I used it to fund my first Backdoor Roth! Not super sexy but gave me lots of confidence in my personal finances.

[MPMD]

ticker wrote:

0.25%- Celebratory dinner with my wife

10%- Charity

15%- Held aside for taxes

Blew the rest on what I thought would make me happiest

 

… a lower student loan balance.

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that's pretty solid right there.

only thing i would modify is to create an immediate e-fund rather than just hitting student loans.

cash in the bank gives me a heckuva lot of feeling of security.

[dentoid]

Any odds you have the pay the sign on bonus back?

Emergency fund would be my number one initial goal.

[Vascular Doc]

Depends on when you get the bonus.   Mine was part of my first paycheck, not when I signed the contract.   Keep in mind that there will be a gap in time from when you get your last pay check from residency / fellowship to when you start making money again.   Mine was over a month.  So if you got the bonus now, plan for those living expenses during the gap.    With a long residency and fellowship, new family, and high COL area I was down to credit cards for the last 2 months.  My bonus was used to pay off that balance.   Also, as others have stated, most of the bonus's I have seen these days are characterized as advanced pay, so if you leave before a specified period of time you may have to pay it back.

[Craigy]

Checking account.

[Brains428]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I’ll spend it on my first vacation in 7 years and furniture at the new place.

[nachos31]

Peds wrote:

peds doesnt get a sign on bonus.

Click to expand...

My pediatrician wife got a signing bonus. I got a starting bonus. Note the difference: the former you get when you sign the contract and the latter when you actually start working. There may be a large gap of time in between those two.

We saved most of her signing bonus and used a quarter to spend a month in South America between residency and starting our jobs -- time and money well spent.

[adventure]

Brains428 wrote:

Thanks for all the responses. I think I’ll spend it on my first vacation in 7 years and furniture at the new place.

Click to expand...

7 years? You have a problem. Yikes.

Please don't ever do that again.

(I assume you at least took some time off, it just wasn't to the beach or some distant locale!)

[LasixDrip]

Two bonuses coming july. I’m most excited to chuck it at the mortgage. She wants to put hers toward a new roof. Very exotic plans.