First RN paycheck hit and I'm still broke. Is this just it?
Avery on orientationThe question
My first paycheck as an RN landed Friday and it was hundreds under what I had penciled out. I'm four weeks into orientation, on days with my preceptor, so no differential is on it. I budgeted straight off the hourly number in my offer letter and I feel dumb. What actually hit for you, and when did the money start to feel different?
The conversation
6 replies- Nursing Mastery
Three things eat the offer letter number. Your first check usually covers a partial pay period, so it lands smaller than every check after it. Taxes, benefits, and retirement come out before you see a dollar. On orientation you're on your preceptor's schedule, almost always days, so no differential is on it yet. Budget off your first full pay period with differentials, not off this one.
- Maya on nightsRN, 8 months in, med surg nights
Month 1 I felt scammed. Month 4 my first full nights pay period landed about 400 more than an orientation check for the same hours. Nothing about my life changed until that check. What it rents: a one bedroom, no roommate, first time in my life, at 26.
- Chris on the commuteRN, 6 months off orientation, tele
Turn on the retirement match your first week, then never think about it again. Mine matches 4 percent and I didn't set it up until month 5, so I handed back five months of free money while I ate rice. Also find out whether your PTO accrues from your hire date or only after 90 days. I booked a trip I hadn't earned yet.
- Harper past the first codeRN, 10 months in, PCU
Two numbers nobody said out loud to me. Overtime starts past 40 hours in a week, so a shift picked up in a week you're already at 36 pays very differently than the same shift in a week you're at 24. My 1 year raise was a percent of base, so 3 percent of 32 came out under a dollar an hour. I chased extra shifts for three months and the money was real, and so was how wrecked I was by month 9. Pick up on purpose, for a number and a date, not as a lifestyle.
- Riley in the break roomRN, ED, 11 months in
Read the sign-on bonus terms before you spend a cent of it. Mine paid in one lump, withheld at the supplemental rate, so about a third of it never showed up. It also carries a clawback, so leaving before my 2 year mark means writing a check back. I park bonus money untouched until the clawback is done, then it's mine.
- Emerson asking about payRN, 7 months in, med surg days
Still broke at month 7, honestly. The RN money went straight to the loan payment and a car I bought at exactly the wrong moment. Do not buy the car in year one, that payment outlives the excitement by four years. What did change: I stopped checking my balance in the grocery line. It gets better, just slower than the offer letter made it sound.
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