Because many regular expenses such as rent, gas, electric, and all those internet and phone bills are due monthly, you’ll likely end up with a little extra cash in your wallet in these off months. It pays to make a note of when those five-paycheck months will occur so you can plan ahead for how you’ll use those extra checks to improve your finances.
How To Handle Extra Paychecks
You can just bank that extra paycheck into a savings account or add it to your investments. If you do that each month in which you get an extra check, you’ll have added a full month’s worth of net pay to your nest egg—and you won’t have shorted yourself on your monthly cash flow needed to meet regular expenses. Or, you could use that extra money to pay down credit card debt or make an extra payment on your mortgage, which would go entirely toward the principal, increasing your equity. This is actually another form of saving the money because that equity comes back to you when you sell the house. These extra checks might feel like windfalls, and you could earmark them to have fun you otherwise couldn’t afford. So why not set up a “splurge” savings account that’s devoted entirely for play: vacations, expensive dinners, pricey entertainment, and more. Just don’t do this at the expense of a common-sense savings plan that will help you achieve your future financial goals.
Weekly Paychecks
If you are paid weekly on Fridays, each of the years from 2022 through 2029 has at least four months containing five paydays. That’s a lot of extra cash to use for fun, to pay down debt, or any other way you see fit. Here are the months with five Fridays for the rest of the decade:
2022: April, July, September, December2023: March, June, September, December2024: March, May, August, November2025: January, May, August, October2026: January, May, July, October2027: January, April, July, October, December2028: March, June, September, December2029: March, June, August, November
Bi-Weekly Paychecks
If you get paid every two weeks, you will also see months where you will receive three paychecks instead of two. However, this will only occur if your payday falls on the first Friday of a month that has five Fridays in it. Unfortunately, if your payday falls on the second Friday of those months, you will only receive the usual two paychecks. The next step? Get out your calendar and check the five-Friday months to see when your paydays will fall.
How the Season Can Affect Your Budget
Seasonal expenses during these months that are not in your regular monthly budget might include holiday spending, birthdays, taxes, school expenses, or months with recurring home and car maintenance. If you do get an extra paycheck, it might show up just in time to keep your budget on track during those extra-spending months.
