A few years back, I was working for a non-profit. The organization was facing a
budget crunch, and I have decided to work for free. My President would not allow me
to take no salary, so I made a deal with him. The deal was that I would take my
annual salary on the last day of the year. At which time, if the NPO only had
$1,000, then my annual salary would have been $1,000 that year. I was prepared to
have no salary, and pragmatically my wife and I lived through those 12 months with
no income from me. We had saved up some money for a down payment to a house, and we
felt that the worst case scenario was that we would have spent all the savings and
had to delay purchasing a house.
12 months later, sure enough the organization didn’t have any extra cash. In fact,
we had a small deficit that year. So, no salary that year for me… However, during
the whole year, we never had to dip into our savings. No major changes in our
lifestyle. And within the 30 days after the year was over, my wife and I moved into
our first purchased house. The house was worth about $300,000. After the sales
price and renovation, it cost us less than $200,000 total.
I gave up about $50,000 in salary, and gain back about $100,000. How this for a
test result?
Roger
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