⏰How to negotiate more time off⏰

By now, you've read a lot about the Great Resignation: how 4 million Americans are leaving their jobs every month as people drastically reshuffle their life and career priorities.

Whether you are looking for a new opportunity or staying put, make current employment trends work in your favor. In this ultra-tight job market, you have more power to negotiate now – not just when it comes to salary but also in terms of time away from work.

“People are telling me, ‘What I need more than anything else this year is time off,’ ” says Alexandra Carter, a professor at Columbia Law School and author of “Ask For More.”

Chris Taylor has four tips on negotiating more time out of the office. The one that resonates most with me is using your hard-earned vacation. According to a survey by Mercer, only 42% of respondents report that most of their employees take all their allotted time off.

Are you planning to use all of your vacation time this year? Why or why not?

REUTERS POLL 📊

Speaking of time off, our last Reuters poll looked at how many unread emails are usually in your inbox when you return from a break. More than half of you said you check email frequently while out of the office!

Now, for this week's poll, we want to know how much vacation you plan to take in 2022. Vote here and add your thoughts in the comments, please!

KEEP CALM AND REUTERS ON 📉

To say that 2022 is not looking great for investors is a bit of an understatement.

With the major market indexes in a freefall and often dancing in correction territory, you may be wondering what to do next.

Alas, I have no crystal ball. I cannot tell you which way the markets are heading, but I do think about the title of Flannery O'Connor's collection of short stories: "Everything that Rises Must Converge."

What goes up, must come down and even, at times, collide.

If you are looking for the most up-to-date, factual and unbiased news and data, look no further than the Reuters Markets Page, which recently got a makeover. We don't tell you what to buy or sell, but we do provide all the information you need to make smart, informed and sane decisions.

This primer, for example, concisely explains how the Russia-Ukraine conflict could impact global markets.

To that end, while I like to stay current on markets news, I actually make a point of not checking my investment accounts when I know they are down significantly. In 2008-2009, I literally did not look at my retirement account for more than a year!

I'm in it for the long haul, baby.

A$K LAUREN

Q. I'd love to do the following type of thing for every time I get paid. Can you tell me the most cost efficient permutation of this and what you suggest for allocations? Do I open separate bank accounts for each of these purposes, etc.? Please keep in mind that I do project work so amounts and frequency of receiving compensation varies:

-X amount of every paycheck into my brokerage account for investing

-X amount every check for charity

-X amount every check towards splurge that I can remember being associated with each particular project

-X amount savings

-X amount day-to-day cash

— Caroline, New York City

A. Splitting up your paycheck is a great way to automate your budget while effortlessly saving and investing, says Vadim Verdyan, head of advice at Albert.

"That said, it’s important to be realistic about how you calculate how much money goes where — so you don’t end up scrambling to move money around to cover expenses," Verdyan says.

A popular budget is the 50/20/30 model where 50% of your income goes to bills, 20% towards savings, investing and retirement, and 30% can be used as the spending bucket for everything else, Verdyan notes.

"This budget can work well, but it’s meant to be simple with only those three allocations," Verdyan notes.

Below, Verdyan delves into different permutations:

1.     Savings — The 50/20/30 plan says you should save 20% of your income. But that’s not always feasible. Saving 10% of your check is more realistic for many people. It’s still a healthy amount to save.

2.     Brokerage account/investing — Assuming you have all your toxic debt (high-interest credit cards, for example) paid off and an emergency fund that can cover up to six months of bills and expenses, a good general rule to follow is to save 10–20% of each paycheck.

From there, the amount you decide to invest will come down to your personal preference and risk tolerance. A happy medium would be to put 10% towards saving and 10% towards investing. This way you can still save for short-term fun goals while also investing in your future.

3.     Charity — This amount will also vary, too. But aim to set aside 3-5% of your paycheck for charity. If you have few expenses or are fortunate enough to earn a higher income, this number can be a lot higher. As an added benefit, you can also deduct charitable donations made to qualified organizations from your adjusted gross income when tax season rolls around. Talk to your tax expert for more info on this.

4.     Splurge money — This is a bit different from day-to-day spending money because it’s just meant to be spent on pure “wants” versus “needs.” For this type of spending, you wouldn’t want to go over 10% of your check otherwise you might not have enough for essentials — which could put you in a bind!

5.     Day-to-day cash — After everything’s in the buckets listed above, you should have about 20% of your budget left. This amount should be perfect for day-to-day spending cash between paychecks. 

A good way to get started is to open separate primary and secondary checking and savings accounts (a high-yield savings account, preferably). There are many completely free checking and savings accounts out there with no minimum balance requirements or monthly service fees,

Then split your direct deposit so all your bill and expense money goes into your primary checking, and splurge and day-to-day cash goes into your secondary checking account. Finally, your savings should be deposited into, you guessed it, your savings account. From that savings account, you can schedule automatic transfers to your brokerage (investing) account.

"Automating all of this will make your life much easier and help you stay on budget without having to think (much) about it," Verdyan says. 

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