Mathematicians of TTR, How Much.......

I was thinking about this today. My 1 year experience is coming up in several months. Deciding what to do moving forward.

LTL linehaul looks like great money. BUT, I'm also single with no dependents ( no kids no wife).

OTR I get $63 per diem per day, or $441 per diem per week. As a tax filing single person, this helps me out a LOT.

When thinking of LTL jobs or salaries, I have to remind myself that gross pay is irrelevant. I don't care about earning more money to give to the government. Net going into my bank each week is what matters.

So I was thinking, let's say I NET after taxes $45,000 per year doing OTR. That'll probably be around the most I'll ever net in a year doing regular OTR reefer or dry van, I think, no matter what my experience is.

What GROSS income would i need doing LTL linehaul, that DID NOT PAY PER DIEM every week, to reach the $45,000 per year NET number?

Again, I'm single and live in the state of NC for tax purposes.

 

Ok I just ran the numbers. According to paycheck city calculator website:

$441 X 52 = $22,932 tax free money per year

$538 X 52 = $27,976, which equals $426.78 after taxes per week

$27,976 + 22,932 = $50,908 gross per year

$426.78 (weekly net on $50,908 gross/52 weeks) X 52 = $22,192 net per year

$22,192 (net after gross taxes)+ 22,932 (per diem untaxed money) = $45,124

So with OTR per diem of $63 per day, I would need to work 52 weeks per year 365 days to gross $50,908 and net $45,124.

With regular no per diem job, I would need to gross $62,400 per year, or $1,200 per week, to net $46,067 per year or $885.92 per week.

So, in conclusion:

OTR per diem job: $50,908 gross = $45124 net

Regular no per diem job: $62,400 gross ($1,200 per week) = $46,067 per year net ($885.92 per week)

This post is so I can reference it later. Of course the OTR calcs are assuming no days off. Which isn't going to happen obviously. And the regular job assumes I get at least 34 hours off per week, maybe even 48.

Still, roughly speaking, I have to make $11,000 more gross per year to net the same amount of money with OTR per diem.

I agree with what another poster said. Maxing out 401k. With a Roth IRA, they are going to tax that anyways so it wouldn't be a tax savings account for the present, but would perhaps be in the future.

Question - How much do LTL companies let you contribute to their 401K plans? I'm thinking actually that I could make up for the tax difference of per diem versus no per diem by maxing out my 401K every single paycheck. Actually then I would be coming out way ahead as I would offset the tax difference by investing that tax difference.

 

i am getting this per diem through my company.

I am not trying to take the deduction when filing taxes, I know that I can't do that anymore as a company driver.

 

well I have less than a year experience right now. I am open to suggestions on how to make more though.