[speaker001:] well what do do you think in terms of uh benefits
[speaker002:] well personally you know I think you know of course I'm sure we're familiar with the exact same benefit package and I think that uh we've probably got one of the best around you know besides they tend to offer adequate adequate vacation I guess and the paid time off is wonderful and uh one of the things that we were just talking about as a matter of fact this week at work was the CODA Plan that is offered and I think that is just a a fabulous one so I don't know if you participate in that or not but
[speaker001:] absolutely
[speaker002:] isn't it great it's just a it's just a miracle that how fast that adds up you know
[speaker001:] well I have to agree with that you know I was thinking about um importance of benefits and that kind of thing other than salary while I was waiting for uh the system to find a a respondent
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I started thinking that over the years that importance has changed and I suspect that that's probably true for everyone
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] when I was much younger it was uh less important to consider retirement and less important to consider medical benefits but as I grow older and my family grows it the medical benefits are more important and the retirement is more important
[speaker002:] I had never really thought of it that way but I guess that's true I guess that's true I'm still young enough that that uh the vacation's real important to me and the paid time off is real important to me and and that kind of thing but uh you know I was just as a matter of fact I just uh celebrated my fifth year at TI the end of last month and uh kind of started looking through the the book because of that you know now that I'm a hundred percent vested you know you kind of look through the book and see well what exactly what does that mean and what is the pension all about and you know when you're when you're you know in your I'm only in my late twenties now so you tend not to think about retirement but uh it's I guess now is the time to think about it so does TI have a pretty good retirement package do you think
[speaker001:] I think they have um a one that we need to recognize that we're going to have to supplement ourselves and that's certainly one of the reasons that I'm sure that they've begun the
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh CODA Plan it's
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] certainly a a supplemental way uh and I suppose if but maybe in in your instance if if you're started with TI in your early to mid twenties and happen to stay with them until you're sixty five then you'll have a very good retirement plan
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] but I had another career first and then came to TI a little later
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so it's not uh all by itself it won't be adequate for for my situation
[speaker002:] something to build up quite enough yeah
[speaker001:] so I have to find a way to supplement that
[speaker002:] yeah well they just they seem to make it so easy to save you know one of the things that we're doing which is probably the worst investment in the world but I've got money coming out to buy savings bonds just coming straight out of my check and it's probably not a great investment but if I wasn't doing that the money wouldn't be being saved anyway you know I kind of have to trade off you know if you never see it you don't spend it so and it's
[speaker001:] I understand understand though it uh believe me I do that myself and I disagree with you I don't think it's the worst investment in the world
[speaker002:] yeah do you yeah do you really not I I you know I I debate about whether it's really good or not you know
[speaker001:] well it's in terms of guaranteed return on investment and maybe you don't start looking for that word guaranteed until later
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] uh it's shown a history that uh sure beats anything else
[speaker002:] yeah that's true that's very true
[speaker001:] over many many years
[speaker002:] we went uh and did a a thing through IBS which is a like a financial consultant type thing here in Dallas and uh one of the things that we talked about with the counselor there was you know they work up this whole big you know proposal profile for you that every all the things that you need to work on and you need to do and then one of the things that we talked about with her was you know the need to save for our son's education we have a two year old you know and and you know we can't start saving for college when he's sixteen you know we have to do that now and and uh they have a way that they can figure you know what you know and he's two now in sixteen years when he's ready to go to college this is how much it'll cost you know and it's just really scary the thought of how much it's going to it's what it costs now is ridiculous what it's going to cost sixteen years from now is just really scary and they sat down and figured up that we needed to save like fifteen between fifteen and seventeen hundred dollars a year at a oh you know six percent interest rate to be able to have you know money for his college and that's exactly what we have coming out in saving bonds is is you know about fifteen hundred dollars a year so I guess it you know in that way at least we know that that's taken care of you know we we can worry about other things so
[speaker001:] I understand that approach that's what that's exactly what's happening in my family
[speaker002:] yeah yeah is it really yeah
[speaker001:] except that mine are a little bit older and and I've shown them the numbers and said this is what's going to be available all this is going to do is give you a little spending money while you're there you better make sure that you've got a scholarship
[speaker002:] uh-huh that's right that's right well that's what she said to us she said now do you all want him to go to a a state college or a private college and and our answer was that you know we will have enough money available for him to attend a state college and if he wants to go to a private college he can get a scholarship to attend you know and that was kind of our view on it it just costs too much you just can't do it you know so I don't know it's it's I don't uh it just amazing it amazes me how much the the costs are going to go up over the next ten or fifteen years I just don't know how anybody's going to do it
[speaker001:] I know and boy it gets really scary when you start talking to them um I have a an eleven year old daughter now who's saying gee dad I want to be an allergist and I said that's wonderful I applaud that let me explain to you how you get scholarships to do that
[speaker002:] oh goodness yeah yeah exactly exactly
[speaker001:] and then her little brother's only two years behind and he says well I don't know I think that I probably want to be a veterinarian and I said that's great let me explain to you how you get scholarships to do that
[speaker002:] that's right that's right well you know TI you know TI offers some good stuff and then I think there's I mean I think there's some negatives but there's going to be some negatives anywhere you know no matter where you go I have you know all this is the first really large company I've worked for I've always been involved in little small you know individual privately owned owned firms and so I've never had the the big benefit package so I really don't know how to compare it to other big companies you know it when I came on it was great see because I had never had anything even close to what what they offered so I've been real pleased
[speaker001:] well that's fantastic and on whole on I would say that they're
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] equal to uh most of our competitors
[speaker002:] think so
[speaker001:] uh I can see some some potential changes that probably are are would not cost very much but might uh make things a little easier such as offering a a smorgasbord
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] having a larger variety of benefits but here's the amount that that TI is going to pay for it now it's up to you it's menu selection so to speak
[speaker002:] yeah  yeah and you can pick what you want and yeah right that sounds really good I read a thing I don't even remember if it was in the Da llas Site or the Inside one about uh companies allowing you and they said that TI was looking into it to purchase extra vacation days which I thought sounded like a good idea you know if you've been there you know under five years and you get two weeks of vacation but that's really not enough and you want an extra week then you can purchase an extra week of vacation by saying okay I'm going to want an extra five days this year and they'll take a set amount out of each paycheck you know and they're deducting it all along so you you can have an extra five days off and be paid for them at the time you know you're you're really not being paid for them the money is actually coming out of your own pocket but it's coming out a little bit a t a time instead of all at once you know so that is kind of an idea that that a lot of people sounded like that they were really interested in and TI said that they were looking into something like that so
[speaker001:] well I could certainly personally stand seeing them go to a a standardized compensatory time for overtime
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and I don't believe any of us would have to purchase any extra vacation days if they did that
[speaker002:] well true true
[speaker001:] uh and and I would certainly support something like four to one or five to one or or you know maybe they want to get generous and make it three to one
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh as as a repayment for every three to five days that I work overtime there they should give me one day
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah
[speaker001:] but it should be a standard and and not left up to either the whim or the current overhead rate that's uh that's running in each department
[speaker002:] um-hum well and yeah and and a lot of that is left up to whoever your supervisor happens to be and what type of relationship you have with that person and you know I see a lot of differences but from one group to the next you know about who gets it and who doesn't get it you know but that's and that's that way with a lot of things you know there it seems like it depends on what what group you happen to be in what what you're going to get and what you're not going to get so
[speaker001:] well that's for sure
[speaker002:] which is the same but but then it's probably that way anywhere you know that's
[speaker001:] oh I'm sure personalities always come into play uh just in this size of organization
[speaker002:] um-hum