[speaker001:] all right
[speaker002:] uh what kind of um besides your besides your salary what's what's the most the thing that you would consider to be most important as a benefit
[speaker001:] yeah well I guess uh I I I'm kind of in uh in an unusual situation probably for this particular topic because I'm self-employed
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] have you ever worked for a large organization
[speaker001:] but yes I have worked I've worked for TI and I've worked for LTV
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] uh and I suppose that uh so far as benefits are concerned the most important to uh me today would probably be uh something to do with retirement benefits
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] at at this point in my life though I'm I'm I'm a little older probably than you know than the typical new employee would be anyway uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] in you know in my younger days I I was interested in what's the vacation policy and then as I matured a little bit you know I was more interested in what are the insurance benefits you know
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but uh so I I you know I guess it from my point of view it depends on uh you know on where you are in life as to what's most important
[speaker002:] yeah probably because you said retirement and that really has not even occurred to me once
[speaker001:] and uh yeah yeah uh you know if you're not uh if you haven't haven't looked forward to you know what are you going to do when you retire
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] when you get to the point where you're looking forward to it then it gets to be important because you've got to do some planning for it uh you know especially if the company is not doing it for you
[speaker002:] yeah that's true that's true
[speaker001:] and uh there are you know there are companies that do and there companies that don't you know that don't have good retirement plans
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I guess uh the companies that participate in the 401K type plans where you know you have the the uh option of contributing to uh to a retirement plan
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh maybe even the company does some kind of a matching program for that that's those are good programs uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I I I'm a CPA so I look at you know I get to see a lot of these uh a lot of different programs and things and along that line
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh I like to see where the company makes those makes benefits available at least to the employees
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so that they can pick and chose what they like uh you know there they've got one that they call a cafeteria plan I don't know whether you're familiar with that or not
[speaker002:] no what is that
[speaker001:] and uh essentially the cafeteria plans are programs where the company makes available a a different uh uh different packages of benefits you you know you can pick the kind of insurance you want and the kind of dental coverage and the kind of vacation policy you want an and all of these different things and you pick the ones that you want as long as the total cost to the company essentially the total cost to the company fits you know within their guidelines so every employee gets the same dollar amount of benefits but they can pick them from different whatever is most important to them
[speaker002:] um no I hadn't heard of that
[speaker001:] so you can uh so you can get you know you can get the insurance plan that's important to you and somebody else can get the vacation plan that's important to them and the company winds up paying the same you know the same amount for each one
[speaker002:] um is that something that you should change from year to year
[speaker001:] uh I believe that you can that you can change well maybe not from year to year but at least you can change periodically uh as to you know as to to get the stuff that's more important to you yeah that's uh something that the uh that the federal government you know put into uh you know into the IRS regulations as uh as
[speaker002:] that sounds like it might be a really good idea
[speaker001:] uh deductions uh allowable deductions for companies they put those in oh four of five years ago uh you know the the different insurance companies and things started promoting those plans
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh I I think there you know it's a pretty good option to have of course the 401K 401K is is a good you know it's a good savings vehicle
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so uh anyway uh what kind of plans are you are you in now are what have you been in before
[speaker002:] well I think of uh you mean as far as retirement
[speaker001:] well as so far as benefit packages indicate in total
[speaker002:] I think the the most important thing for me right now is is really the medical coverage
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I am in uh in uh involved in a four 401K but I'm uh contributing such a such a small amount right now
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] just to go ahead and have the account open because uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh I just let's see I've been with this company for about three months and before that uh we were we're we're still in the process of trying to catch up
[speaker001:] yeah I understand that yeah
[speaker002:] we were we were way behind financially and so haven't really uh quite managed to catch up yet
[speaker001:] yeah so
[speaker002:] exactly and we're also trying to buy a house which complicates matters even further
[speaker001:] right yeah it's and it's uh it it's uh uh a hassle trying to to uh uh put your money all in the right in the savings you know in the right pockets I guess it would be a way to say it
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know to get everything do you have children and so so they I guess the uh
[speaker002:] no no that would complicate things even more
[speaker001:] yeah the yeah the medical insurance would really be a lot more important if you had uh if you had children I guess if you're of child bearing age then it's important too you know because
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that's probably
[speaker001:] you know because you got to have uh at least have the coverage in case that your in case you have another child or have a child
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah that's true
[speaker001:] and uh  you want to have that coverage so anyway uh but what else
[speaker002:] well there's lets see what other
[speaker001:] yeah uh I guess uh what what kind of typical vacation programs uh vacation plans do do the companies have that you've worked for uh so far as when you get vacation and how much
[speaker002:] it seems like everybody has it used to be that they used to give like two weeks a year and now they give one week after the first six months
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah it's I have not uh I have not seen vacation policies you know written in about seven years so I'm not real sure how they're how they're changing what they're doing now
[speaker002:] most most of the time now they do the first week after the first six months so that if somebody really needs that time
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] they can go ahead and use it then or they can just wait the full year and then have two
[speaker001:] yeah but uh yeah that's a good deal
[speaker002:] so it work it would work either way
[speaker001:] yeah how what do you what do you find that that they're uh when they change from two weeks to three weeks is it five years or ten years or
[speaker002:] probably five years I think
[speaker001:] yeah uh
[speaker002:] or seven uh that's kind of far away
[speaker001:] yeah so that's uh that's a that's a bit of a a wait to get I know that uh in the past I've worked for companies you know where they they had a pretty good uh pretty good plan uh vacation policy you know you got you got the two weeks the first year and then they went up
[speaker002:] okay um I've got another call coming in
[speaker001:] oh is that yours okay well and it's been nice talking to you
[speaker002:] okay all right bye bye
[speaker001:] okay thanks