5 Ways to Take Advantage of Corporate Perks and Build Future Wealth

TLDR: Always take the free money your company offers you (like HSA dollars, 401K matching, free company shares), live as long as you can like you never got a big salary bump or bonus without making yourself miserable, and take advantage of any other work perks while you have them.

Making the transition from writing papers and doing group projects to attending meetings and managing projects is never easy. All of us who transitioned from college life to “the real world” struggled through those first few years. There’s a ton of corporate jargon being thrown around, you have to prioritize your own work, and you can feel an immense pressure to prove yourself, often leading to working around the clock. That typically means you have very little time to pay attention to all the other adulting that come along with your job, like the benefits that can make a big difference if you take advantage of them early on.

When I reflect on my first job in corporate, there is one thing I wish I had taken the time to do earlier: actually read those emails from HR and get my finances set up right. I eventually learned from my managers and friends in HR, but it was a learning curve. Now, 10 years down the road, I have realized that there were certain benefits and strategies I took advantage of (that many companies offer, btw) that have actually made a huge difference in the wealth I have today. The key is starting early. There’s also no better time to start than today. So here are the top five things I did that have contributed to really growing my money pile that I use for investing today.

#1: Choose the high deductible plan and set up an HSA

Like many people early in their career, I didn’t have a ton of money, so I typically opted for the “cheaper” option. I applied that same logic when I saw the deductibles for the health insurance plan options offered. I thought “A lower deductible is probably better because I sure as hell don’t have $3,000 if something happens!” I got scared of that big number and didn’t realize that actually I was paying MORE every month in premiums for the low deductible plan. Because I was fortunate to be in very good health with basically just an annual trip to the doctor and no prescriptions, I really didn’t need that level of coverage. I could have actually been paying for the high deductible plan, saving that extra money I was paying in premiums in case of a health emergency, and putting it into an Health Savings Account (HSA) instead. Now, everyone’s health is different so I am not making a blanket statement that everyone should opt for the lower cost/higher deductible plan. I’m just making you aware of the logic and options that are out there.

What is an HSA? It’s basically a savings account that you can use for specific medical expenses. HSA’s are awesome because they are pre tax dollars (meaning they lower the income you get taxed on), the money can be set up to come directly out of your paycheck every period so you can set it and forget it, and some companies even offer a free match or certain amount they will chip in every year for free (mine was $200!). HSA’s also stay with you for life. Even if you go to another company, you can keep your HSA and continue to use it. Don't even get me started on all the ways you can use it. If you don't know, it's not just for premiums. Check out HSAstore.com and you'll see all of the qualified products you can purchase with your HSA $$'s (think Goop sunscreen, Thinx, and more).

The last piece I learned that makes them even more amazing is you can make money off of your HSA. YUP! Once you have enough money saved up in there, you can actually take a portion of it, invest it into a specific stock, index, or mutual fund and let it grow. And you never pay taxes on that growth as long as it’s in the account. If you end up needing the money to pay for something, you can just sell your investment and use the cash. I recommend saving up the amount that you’d need if you had to fully pay for medical expenses one year out of pocket on the high deductible plan (could be up to around $5K), and then invest anything on top of that. The money is just going to sit there anyways, so why not let it make money, so you have more to use for healthcare expenses later on? Investopedia has a great article to dig into more of the nitty gritty on investing with HSA's if you want to learn more.

#2: Take advantage of 401K matching

This one is a no brainer. Whenever there is free money involved, follow Nike's advice and just do it. Many corporations will offer some level of 401K matching, meaning, for example, if you opt to put 4% of your paycheck into your 401K, the company will contribute that same amount to your account. FO FREE. It would literally be like throwing away money to not take advantage of this perk and at least contribute that amount. Plus you can set it up so that the money comes directly from your paycheck and you never even see it. You can decide if you want to put in money post tax (pay taxes now and let the money grow without having to pay taxes later in retirement), or pre tax (don’t pay taxes now and lower your taxable income, but pay once you want to take it out). But that’s a whole other article or video I’ll post sometime.

When you’re just starting out, or even later in life, depending on your financial situation, it can feel like you need every penny of that paycheck. From my experience, if you never see it hit your bank account, you’ll probably forget you ever could have had it after a while. I promise that you will not regret it when you fast forward 10 years and you have a nice nest egg of dollars that you can continue to invest and have available later on in life.

#3: Participate in shares programs

This one may have been unique to the company I was at, but I have heard of other companies that have similar programs. The one that I participated in was buy x shares get x free. Essentially allowed if you purchased a certain number of shares each quarter with your paycheck, you would get a certain amount free. There’s that beautiful F word again. I would buy a small amount, again with money that came directly out of my paycheck before it was deposited so I never thought about it, and over the course of 5 years racked up almost $8K in shares, about $1K of which was free. Those numbers may look small but like I said I participated at the minimum in the program. If I had put more in, I would have gotten more free.

There are some strings attached about how long you have to hold on to them in order to get your free shares but if the company is pretty stable and especially if you think it’s going to grow, it’s worth it. As you make more money and if you really believe in your company, it might be worth increasing the amount you purchase. The nice part is once the shares have vested (aka are yours to do what you want with), you can decide what you want to do in terms of holding onto them or selling them if you want to make a different investment.

#4: Saved my bonuses and continued to live as if I never had a salary increase

This one is big. It’s not free money, because you are working hard trading your time and brain power for it, but it is still what I like to call “cherry on top” money. I didn’t realize it at the time, but one key to me being able to save up so much money in my early years of my career was that I saved any money I viewed as extra. This, for me, meant my annual bonuses and salary increases.

What do I mean by living below my means? I mean that even after I was making over $80K, I acted like I was still making $60K. I could have afforded my own place after 3 years and getting promoted to an entry level manager, but instead I chose to live with roommates in the less popular neighborhoods. In fact, when I was making almost 6 figures I was living with 6 dudes in a townhouse. I could have bought a new car, but I decided to keep my one that was paid off and worked perfectly fine in order to avoid a car payment.

I do truly believe that living an extreme frugality lifestyle can create a scarcity mindset that is difficult to shake later down the road. Instead, try a financially conscious one. I still went on one big international vacation with my friends every year. But we got an Airbnb and split it between the 8 of us instead of a fancy hotel. And what i remember from that vacation is cooking meals together and getting ready to go out as a group, not that we didn’t have a luxury hotel room I could show off on Instagram. I chose to cook most nights and invite my friends over for dinner instead of ordering out 5 times a week. You can still have fun while saving money. It’s about making choices of where to spend your money and funneling it into things that make you truly happy.

#5: Get paid to move

This one may not be as relevant anymore in our world of remote working, but who knows what will change so I decided to leave it in here. In 2013 when I started my first job out of college, I lived far enough away from the corporate headquarter office I was going to start working at that I got paid a lump sum of cash to help with my moving expenses. Then I got asked to work in our Seattle office as it was starting up, and negotiated another cash payment as part of my agreement to move there. Don’t get me wrong, I was really psyched to get out of New Jersey and get a change of scenery. But not every employee would just upend their life to move across the country, so they gave me an incentive to do so.

The key is not that I got this money, it’s what I did with it. I minimized my moving expenses, found really cheap apartments, and bought all my furnishings from Goodwill, Facebook Marketplace, or Offerup. Then I pocketed that money and added it to my stockpile for future use. I don’t advocate letting it sit in a savings account and wish I had invested it earlier, but again, different lesson learned and probably a whole other topic I will touch on later. The point is, minimize your spending (without making yourself miserable) and maximize your savings whenever possible.

There you have it. Five simple ways you can take advantage of a corporation or larger company for the time that you are there that can pay big dividends in the form of your future wealth potential. I learned so much working for a large multinational during my early career that has been invaluable to me over the years. What I’ve noticed is that we tend to talk about the the hard skills we acquired at a company but not the financial perks that can come along with the job. Don’t forget that if someday you want to work for a smaller company, or even yourself, you may not have access to those perks forever. Take advantage while you can. Your future money makin’ self will thank you.

P.S. if you think this article might be helpful to someone that's just starting out in their career, please feel free to share!