Personal Finance 101 – Your Benefits Package At Work: The Extras

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Personal Finance 101: Your Benefits Package At Work – The Extras

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Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

June 06, 2011

One of the most overlooked parts of an overall financial plan is the benefits package you receive from your employer. Last week I reviewed the area of disability insurance and how to best protect your overall income. Depending on the size of the company where you are employed, you will find many different types of unique benefits. Each of these benefits can be easy to gloss over come open enrollment season, but analyzing your overall budget and how these benefits fit in with your plan can be paramount to reaching overall success. Here are handful extra benefits you may have that should be examined.

  1. Legal Plan - A basic legal plan through your employee benefits package can cover many items including legal consultations, wills (including certain types of trusts), living wills, powers of attorneys, deeds, and potentially more based upon the type of overall plan. If you carefully consider the years you may need these types of legal services, it could save you a bunch of money than potentially high attorney costs.
  2. Long Term Care Plan-Most people only think about purchasing long term care insurance once they turn the age of 50. However, many large and medium size employers now offer a group long-term care insurance plan. Many of these plans will allow you to enroll as early as 19 years of age, and these policies can cover both nursing home and home health care costs not typically covered by your medical policy. Some these plans will guarantee insurability. The most important item to look into is to see whether the group policy is portable, so if you leave your employer you can take the policy with you.
  3. Pet Insurance- With overall pet care costs rising, this can be a very important piece of insurance to own. With this type of insurance, you can be eligible to receive discounts on vaccinations, routine care, treatments, or surgery through the insurance carrier offered by your employer. On many of these plans you can cover cats, dogs, birds, and even exotic pets. Once again, this is an important calculation to analyze to determine how much out of pocket costs you are spending versus what the insurance costs and overall savings would mean to your bottom line.
  4. Educational Reimbursements- Many employers will offer programs to reimburse employees for advancing their education. Reading the fine print of these policies is incredibly important. Usually, the programs you take must be related toward your work performed with the company. Some of these programs will allow you to get financial education or credits toward higher degrees like an MBA. Make sure to see whether the program covers tuition, books, or both.
  5. Your Company Mall-Often, large organizations will have some type of company mall that allows for employees discounts on items such as travel, clothing, books, and much more. Many employees don't take the time to research these programs, and end up spending more money when they make purchases on these items.

Your benefits package is such a large part of your overall compensation plan. When you search for a new position, make sure to closely analyze both your cash and non-cash compensation so you can maximize what goes in your pocket.

Go to www.oxygenfinancial.net to request a consultation to figure out if you have chosen the right benefits from your employer. If you are a small business owner, we can set up a benefit plan for your employees.

Written by:

Ted Jenkin, CFP®, AAMS®, AWMA®, CRPC®, CMFC®, CRPS®

Co-CEO and Founder oXYGen Financial, Inc

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Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. oXYGen Financial is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS. Kestra IS and Kestra AS do not provide tax or legal advice. https://Bit.ly/KF-Disclosures

This site is published for residents of the United States only. Registered Representatives of Kestra IS and Investment Advisor Representatives of Kestra AS may only conduct business with residents of the states and jurisdictions in which they are properly registered. Therefore, a response to a request for information may be delayed. Not all products and services referenced on this site are available in every state and through every representative or advisor listed. For additional information, please contact Kestra IS Compliance Department at 844-553-7872.

PLEASE NOTE: The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of the web sites provided here, you are leaving this web site. Kestra IS and Kestra AS makes no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these web sites. Nor is Kestra IS and Kestra AS liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, web sites, information and programs made available through this web site. When you access one of these web sites, you are leaving our web site and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the web sites you are linking to.