The Unexpected Year-End Bonus

Good morning!

I hope this finds you well.

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to live the life you actually want to live.

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My weekend didn’t turn out exactly how I planned.

This past weekend, I planned on going to the Honda dealership to order the parts for a trailer hitch assembly for my SUV.

Once that was completed, I planned on heading to an RV dealership to check out a camper I’m interested in.

I’m interested in a camper for two reasons: 1) more leisurely weekend escapes from NYC and 2) enhanced cross-country road trips.

Well, I woke up this past Friday entirely out of sorts. I felt as if I had the mother of all hangovers. I assure you I didn’t go drinking Thursday night (I never drink during the week).

What precipitated this was getting a flu shot and COVID booster simultaneously on Thursday.

I didn’t start feeling better until Saturday evening.

I was excited to write about my plans for the camper, but that’ll have to wait.

So, in the spirit of the holidays, I want to write about year-end work bonuses and my experience with the only two year-end bonuses I ever received.

When I practiced law, I worked for two small law firms. The first was in New Jersey and the second was in New York City. Like any employer, they each had their pros and cons.

I started working for the NJ firm at the end of November 2008. I was a newly minted-attorney with less than a month of experience when the holidays rolled around. I didn’t even consider a year-end bonus, much less expected one.

Much to my surprise, I was presented with a year-end bonus equal to a week’s pay (a relatively significant amount).

On a side note, the firm won a big case a few months later and, without any expectation, I was presented with a $6,000 bonus.

I felt like the young Henry Hill in Goodfellas, getting tips for keeping the ice cubes cold.

It was a good firm and the attorney I worked for was a good employer.

Fast forward to 2010: the days working for the NYC law firm when most of my work days, if not all of them, were spent in NYC courtrooms.

It was exciting, fast-paced, and a lot of fun.

The firm was doing well financially when the holidays rolled around, and there was talk of year-end bonuses.

Considering my work, the reputation I established with clients and courtroom personnel, and the fact that I settled cases to my clients’ immense satisfaction, I was expecting a year-end bonus.

At the time, I didn’t believe it was an unreasonable expectation.

What was unreasonable was the bonus I received: $250.

Yes, you read that correctly: $250.

I didn’t expect the bonus to be a financial game-changer, but I certainly wasn’t expecting $250.

To add insult to injury, the firm stopped providing attorneys unlimited MetroCards (for the subway) a few months later.

As a result, I had to pay out of pocket to go to courtrooms throughout NYC.

All the while, the attorney I worked for had a personal driver on the firm’s payroll and was remodeling the kitchen in their house in the Hamptons for ~$50,000.

It wasn’t the game I could no longer stomach, it was the rules.

Rules that can change at anytime.

I decided to stop playing the game.

When I turned in my notice, the NYC firm did offer me a significant salary increase. The powers in charge apparently valued the quality of my work. But, if they were going to nickel-and-dime me over a year-end bonus, I didn’t want to imagine how the rules would change in the future.

So I walked and I never looked back.

And I never received a year-end, or any other type of bonus, ever again.

I struggled financially for a few years after that, especially with the crippling amount of student loan debt I was carrying.

But dealing with all that nonsense was a blessing in disguise.

Ultimately, I landed on my feet, took control of my finances, and can now do many things I was unable to do when I practiced law.

Which includes considering buying a camper to spend my considerable off-time in.

Time I (probably) wouldn’t have if I was still practicing law full-time.

And what I consider to be the ultimate bonus.

I wish you and your families a spectacular holiday season!

I will not be publishing newsletters on December 26, 2023 and January 2, 2024.

You can look forward to my next newsletter on January 9, 2024.

Until then, Happy New Year!

Interesting reads:

If you receive a year-end bonus, here are 9 things smart things you can do with it (my vote is for #8).

You can find the collection of my favorite financial tools & resources by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

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