[speaker001:] I guess that starts it um
[speaker002:] all right go
[speaker001:] so um I guess right now what's most important for me uh doing is coming up is we have a really good stock program uh where I work and it's gonna give me about a three hundred percent return this time around on my uh investment
[speaker002:] good
[speaker001:] which is definitely helping since I'm gonna buy a house
[speaker002:] is what do they what do they give you stock in the company you work for
[speaker001:] yeah what they do is what they do is it's it's a purchase program where you get the stock it's it's it's on a one year cycle and you get it at eighty five percent of the lower of the beginning and the end price for the year so like the the set price at the beginning of the year last May was five sixty four a share
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] stocks trading about fourteen now
[speaker002:] wow
[speaker001:] so and you so I'll get to buy it at five sixty four four and turn around the same day the only down side is they do it as a withholding off your uh income so you got to kind of you know be willing to squirrel away at whatever you wanna do
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that sounds good
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] what company is that
[speaker001:] that's with Interleaf
[speaker002:] excuse me
[speaker001:] Interleaf
[speaker002:] Interleaf never heard of it
[speaker001:] uh desktop publishing
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] so but um you know
[speaker002:] yeah what are we supposed to talk about salaries benefits besides salary is that
[speaker001:] yeah benefits other than salary
[speaker002:] yeah but I I get a I get a pretty good I work for the City of New York
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and I get a pretty good um health plan and
[speaker001:] yeah but that that's definitely a good thing to have especially these days
[speaker002:] yeah the health plan's pretty good and and we get um they also have a deferred compensation plan which is similar to what you're talking about where they'll they'll take out money tax free from your income and invest it
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and it's a group investment so you I think you also save fees
[speaker001:] what is what is that like a uh like a uh TIACREF type thing
[speaker002:] it's like a 401K plan except they don't they don't contribute
[speaker001:] okay yeah so it's for retirement
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] yeah so you you have to wait until like fifty five or
[speaker002:] yeah I think I think you can take out the money anytime you want but you'll pay you'll pay taxes on it and you're better off waiting until you retire when you are probably going to have less income or some something like that
[speaker001:] right yeah we we we've got a 401K here but um I chose to go into the stock program because you can't lose on it and you know I can always take the money off of that if I wasn't saving up for the house I would be putting money into a 401K but you know I'd much rather get the eighteen eighteen percent minimum return on the stock and use that for the house
[speaker002:] yeah uh
[speaker001:] but yeah you know medical medical is good you know we get a good program here what's basically a hundred percent coverage for about twenty bucks a month
[speaker002:] wow that's that's really good
[speaker001:] it's like your yeah it is it's a very good company as far as benefits go they've got 401K's they've got uh the health coverage they've got you know the stock program they've got uh 125K selling it for twenty bucks they do put it in the dental you know dental is like you know eighty or fifty percent depending on what you're doing
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] um and you know you the 125K means I can pay that piece out of pre tax money rather than post tax the only problem with 125K is you got to say at the beginning of the year I think I'm gonna have a thousand dollars of expenses this year and then you have to be willing to have that money deducted from your salary and if you don't use the thousand dollars it goes away
[speaker002:] if you own oh okay I see
[speaker001:] so at the end of the year if you haven't used it all up it's you know the feds take it or or whoever takes it it just disappears but you know if if you know you know so you wanna underestimate a little bit so like you know I know I easily have a thousand dollars or five hundred dollars a year of dental and and miscellaneous miscellaneous medical and deductibles
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so I just have them pull you know five hundred it means I pay like you know as opposed to paying like you know eight hundred dollars I pay or five hundred I pay like three hundred because it's on pre tax
[speaker002:] hello
[speaker001:] yeah I'm here
[speaker002:] yeah it uh it was a width away that's why it's it's every time I talk it sounds weird but uh yeah there's there's other benefits too noneconomic I mean there's there's uh
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] there's benefits just in working for a big organization I think in in that you have a lot of uh different people doing a lot of different things and
[speaker001:] yeah I I think it it depends how flat the organization is if you know hang on my computer is talking to me um you know it depends how flat it is if it's um
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] I don't like working in an organization where you're really deep in the tree because then you start to feel like you've got no real you know power to change anything
[speaker002:] right well that's working for the city is somewhat like that except for my unit you know I have control over what goes on in my unit and and just that
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] um but what I mean is I I say for instance I'm an attorney uh a collection attorney for the City of New York and and in the environmental control board and
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] I'm I've learned so much about computer systems and sharing of information all these managerial type things that I never thought I'd be involved with and if I was in private practice I'd never be able to learn all that stuff
[speaker001:] yeah but there's two sides to that because also you know I've seen a lot of I knew somebody who worked for Digital and for two years he worked on like you know the tape driver for one tape drive and that's all he did