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As you get older, your view on benefits changes dramatically. When I was fresh out of college, I had no wife, no kids, no bills, no house. I took all the cool

As you get older, your view on benefits changes dramatically. When I was fresh out of college, I had no wife, no kids, no bills, no house. I took all the cool startup perks - free concert tickets, free box tickets to pro sports teams in town, free RedBull, free pop and food, free lunch. Now in my 30's I have bills, investments, a house mortgage. I went to interview at some smaller startups and established web agencies and they were pitching me on all the "freebies" and I'm thinking, "You know what? Free RedBull doesn't pay my mortgage or my car payment." My view completely changed from taking the handouts to trying to leverage a higher salary in lieu of those things. You have to remember, you only have so many years where you can burn the candle at several ends and still walk away with your sanity.

bbcbasic 11y ago
Yes I get free redbull, lunches, holidays, accomodation etc. in my job. I can choose what restaurant, what airline, what suburb to live in. To make it easy they just pay me thins thing called "money" which is like a token for all the free stuff. Awesome!
toomanybeersies 11y ago
I came to the realisation the other day that I really don't care about free lunch, or free Red Bull, or any of those freebies. They're not really free, because that money could be otherwise used to pay you. I'd rather get money that I could then spend on lunch, than get free lunch.
- elgenie 11y ago
  "I'd rather get money that I could then spend on lunch, than get free lunch." In the US, free lunch at work is not considered income for the purposes of taxation [1], but salary that you'd be using towards lunch would be taxed. So, if you eat lunch at work either way, you're going to be getting about 1⅔ as much lunch in-kind as opposed to in salary (assuming marginal 40% state+federal tax). And that's setting aside the issue of whether it's a good use of your time/energy/willpower to contemplate what/where/how to feed yourself in the middle of your workday. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/119 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/119
  - toomanybeersies 11y ago
    I guess for me I enjoy getting out of the office and finding lunch. I'd prefer to get a couple of percent less "lunch money" and get the choice to find my own lunch. It's more that it's a mental and physical break from work, and a good reason to stretch my legs. I can't stand being cooped up in an office for a full 8 hours at a stretch.
  - cookiecaper 11y ago
    >assuming marginal 40% state+federal tax Very few people in the US pay that.

bbcbasic 11y ago

Yes I get free redbull, lunches, holidays, accomodation etc. in my job. I can choose what restaurant, what airline, what suburb to live in. To make it easy they just pay me thins thing called "money" which is like a token for all the free stuff. Awesome!

toomanybeersies 11y ago

I came to the realisation the other day that I really don't care about free lunch, or free Red Bull, or any of those freebies. They're not really free, because that money could be otherwise used to pay you. I'd rather get money that I could then spend on lunch, than get free lunch.

elgenie 11y ago
"I'd rather get money that I could then spend on lunch, than get free lunch." In the US, free lunch at work is not considered income for the purposes of taxation [1], but salary that you'd be using towards lunch would be taxed. So, if you eat lunch at work either way, you're going to be getting about 1⅔ as much lunch in-kind as opposed to in salary (assuming marginal 40% state+federal tax). And that's setting aside the issue of whether it's a good use of your time/energy/willpower to contemplate what/where/how to feed yourself in the middle of your workday. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/119 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/119
- toomanybeersies 11y ago
  I guess for me I enjoy getting out of the office and finding lunch. I'd prefer to get a couple of percent less "lunch money" and get the choice to find my own lunch. It's more that it's a mental and physical break from work, and a good reason to stretch my legs. I can't stand being cooped up in an office for a full 8 hours at a stretch.
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  >assuming marginal 40% state+federal tax Very few people in the US pay that.