Per Diem

If you are up there in age (say over 45) then don't take per diem. You will lose some of of your social security.

If your young like me take it.

Instead of your money going into Social Security you can open a roth ira and put the same amount in. If you were to put $50 a week in a roth ira for 30 years what would that add up to?

50x52 (1 year) = 2,600
2,600x30 years = $78,000 and we haven't even calculated intrest yet.

A good roth ira will earn more than 8% intrest.

Lets say you average 10%

You put $50/wk into a roth at 10%

Over 30 years you would invest $78,000
After 30 years you have accrued $415,854.06 in interest!
Your total balance after 30 years would be $493,854.04

At that time if you are still earning 10% then you could
just about live off the interest which is about $50,000 a year.

Here is the kicker... you can do this WITHOUT PER DIEM if you wanted, but just think how much money your losing paying into social security (you will never see it - or at least people in my age group wont).

I used the savings calculator from DaveRamsey.com

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You should also be taking advantage of your 401k to (if you plan to stay with your company - otherwise just throw that in your roth so you don't have to fool with it). Also with a roth you can take out money you put in without paying a penalty to the IRS - some banks will charge you a fee if you take it out though so be carefull. Borrowing from a roth is much easier than borrowing from a 401k (if you ever need to).

**I'm not a financial advisor - this is just based off some research - you should talk with a financial counselor or tax advisor before making any major investment decisions like this**

 

I got sucked into Marten with their fancy advertisements, and Certified Top Pay Carrier BS. Basicly their 40 Cents a mile is only if the run is shorter than 300 miles. You drive a 500 mile run and it is .36 miles, before they take their perdiem administration costs. So really Marten is paying you 33 cents a mile. Top Pay Carrier?? LOL

Basicly Marten takes 3 cent a mile to cover administrative costs of filling your per diem. So how much is that? Well let's say you run 2500 miles a week. 2500 x .03 = $75 a week. Multiply that by 52, and Marten is taking 3900 dollars a year and putting in their pocket to do something you could have Jackson Hewitt do for $50. In my case I can get it done for free. I have family that does it for a living.

Bottom line is that this program is benefiting Marten, not the driver. Ask any Marten driver what they think, and you hear the same story that the per diem sucks, and that every time they send you to pick up a pre loaded trailer, it ends up being a 3 to 5 hour sit and wait to get loaded while you eat up you 14 hour window. Maybe as long as the Qualcom dispatch message says a spotted trailer, then Marten can claim they have mostly drop and hook in their advertisements.

Needless to say as soon as I saw my first pay check, I started looking for a new job. When I get it, I'll have to pay Marten all the money it cost to hire me. Hotel, drug test and Physical...Everything. But with the money I'm losing working for them, it will be worth it. I can make this low pay at a local job, and be home with my family every night.

If you want to work for Marten, you'll need to work 3000 miles a week to make $1000 a week. Just remember this: Their 40 cents a mile is really 33.

 

Looking for a job, what area are you in High Desert, Central Valley ?

 

Southwest Florida here

 

WE have beaten the per diem question to death!
Here is what I posted in another thread and I'll copy it here but I'll put a link to the thread and post numbers in as it's a long one and this has been hashed around in other threads also.

Two statements I would like to hit quickly was one where advice was to take the per diem if young. NOT GOOD ADVICE! The other and then I'll summarize it. The other was you will not get out of social security what you put in. FALSE! If you look at the "little" you put in on weekly or yearly and then see what you'll get at "age" it's already more than what you put in! (The social Security Service sends out every year a statement to your listed address a pamplet with all of your tax listings and the estimated amount you will receive when you file for your social security. Mine for some reason is way more than what I paid in!) The one where the per diem is bad is because when that amount you took today will hurt you and hurt badly when you're over 65 or whatever they move it to when you have no income and you need house, electric, food and medicine payments which can cost more than the freaking house payments. Yeah you're young and "dumb" now and like me don't go to a doctor unless you're bleeding out of every pore in your body but when you get old after taking the beating you'll take as a driver it's best to take the end of life interest payments than that piddling little weekly "add to the pay check" gives you! Quit thinking little now and think bigger when you retire! It's not whats in your wallet at the end of the week, but in the bank at retirement! A Roth or IRA is always a good idea and a lot better than a 401K. I quit paying into my 401K after 9/11 when it took a slam because those morons on wall street thought that a terrorist strike hurt the economy! I'm glad as they took another one in about 2008 didn't they when we started into this recession or depression or what ever they are calling it this week!

Now for the cut and paste from the other thread::

Per diem is monies given by the IRS for every DAY you spend away from your domicile (home). It's now at $59.00 a DAY!
Per diem pay by Bottom Feeder Inc. (see disclaimer at bottom of page) isn't even CLOSE to what the government gives you credit for! It is BEST known as "The 3 Martini lunch tax!" The one Mr Clinton took away thinking 3 million plus truck drivers were eating high on the hog and charging Uncle Sam for! Gee thanks Libtards but after a fight we got it back but it's still getting back to where it's fair! But a piddling $59 a day comes no where close to what you pay for 3 over priced meals and if you have to a motel room but it sure helps!
Keep the log book and count the days or let your CPA count them.
They can average that piddling amount you were "PAID" and still get what you actually would have gotten from the IRS! And BOTTOM FEEDER INC. IS charging you WHAT for the PRIVILEGE of doing this "service" for you? A freaking excel page or simple math to figure out a miles times $.02 and they THINK this service is worth that freaking much to SCREW you? Come on BOTTOM FEEDER INC. and the rest of you morons all it takes is ONE more line of code that a SECRETARY or a truck driver using Excel can write to figure out how much the per diem you want so much to HELP screw your drivers with! It's simple 5th grade math and if you're doing this to "help" the ONLY people bringing in this money you're screwing them out of, you're dumber than a brain dead child molester!

Yes, someone did the "math" where it "looks" like you actually did better with them paying you maybe an extra $20-40 a week but if you are living pay check to pay check I guess you're in worse shape than I would ever want to be and I'm on disability right now!
You're thinking wrong!
It's NOT what you have at the end of the week but at the end of the year and also at the end of your serviceable life!

The down side of this legal RIPOFF per Diem is:
Next week you hurt yourself and get paid by workers comp. BUT because BOTTOM FEEDER INC. took the PD out before taxes they paid LESS to taxes and Workers Comp pay is paid on your, wait for it......
what you paid in TAXES!
OOPS you get LESS on Workers Comp! And here you are not working laid up and you have bills to pay but you so wanted that extra piddling $20 a week plus what they screwed you out of to figure it out!

NEXT:
You get fired and you actually managed to show BOTTOM FEEDER INC. has to pay your unemployment. Well because you took that pathetic little extra money each week you will get LESS money on unemployment as it's paid on your...have you figured it out YET? Yep, your GROSS! OOPS screwed again!
NEXT:
You go for a loan, oh say a small one for that new car bike or boat you've had your eye on and go in and fill out the paper work and put your gross you make and being young your credit score is not to high BUT you made that big $32,000 for BOTTOM FEEDER INC. but you got turned down because of your GROSS income! BUT? BUT! BUT, you drove the required 120,000 miles or whatever BOTTOM FEEDER INC. required of you so you SHOULD have made more than that? Right? Right! no WRONG AGAIN!
NEXT:
You go in for a home loan and this same thing happens? OOPS or screwed again!
NEXT and FINAL:
Here is a biggie: Social Security (if it's still there when you get to old to work!) Guess what SS is based on? Want to wait for it or should I go ahead? I'll go ahead! YOUR GROSS! Here BOTTOM FEEDER INC. so graciously "paid" you per diem so "YOU" would have more of "YOUR" money at the end of the week but the ONLY ONE with MORE of "YOUR" money at the end of the week is BOTTOM FEEDER INC.! WHY you might ask? Well, all that TAX money they DIDN"T have to pay on you! The SAME TAX that you'll rely on for when you get hurt on the job, the same for that unemployment, the same tax for your end of life expenses if you didn't get a GOOD CD or IRA (screw a 401K) and that money they say it costs them to do simple 5th grade math to what? Give you MORE money at the end of the week?

Other deductions you can take even if you drove for 1 day!
Safety shoes, it's an OSHA thing!
Uniforms ONLY if required by your company and YOU paid cash for them, NOT regular clothing!
ink pens
note pads
computer if used for your job
phone, broadband card and cell if used for your job
cleaning supplies to clean the company truck
fuel,oil, washer fluid, additives, tolls, faxes, copy costs, or anything the company should have paid for but didn't (keep copies of everything!) Don't give up a receipt that you paid your money on!

But, the Per Diem is the most important tax credit you have! Keep every log book page even computer generated as long as they have all your stop and over night information. As I said Bottom Feeder Inc. isn't paying you a FAIR PD and even some of these low life companies ARE ACTUALLY charging YOU FOR THIS? GIMMIE A BREAK! You're getting SCREWED out of YOUR money to GET money? Sounds like the RICO ACT should be brought into this equation! This is scum stealing from you and trying to make it look legal! Plus they give you the option to opt out or a few of them do. Others, it's take it or hit the road but not in OUR truck! Forced to take something that's GOOD for you??HMMMM...

HEY FBI or IRS want to look a little closer at this plan?
Pyramid Schemes have nothing on this scam!

And to you who think it's so good and think you show it with "the math" remember, EVERY THING looks good on paper but what matters is how it looks in the LONG RUN not whats in your wallet at the end of the week! Quit thinking SMALL!

Good Luck,
Rollover

PS: DISCLAIMER::The term BOTTOM FEEDER INC.is MY way to call ANY company who treats a driver like dirt and every one of you more than 20 truck trucking companies out there deserve the title BOTTOM FEEDER INC. unless you can prove to me and any other of us with more than a days experience that you are NOT a BOTTOM FEEDER INC.! I also authorize any other TTR member to use this phrase!

Let them try to sue those who have nothing because of BOTTOM FEEDER INC.s practices and I called them what they really are! Whats the saying? You can't get blood from a turnip? Go ahead and waste some more of that drivers hard earned money suing me for calling you what you have become! Where will the money come from? College educated morons! As a child we used to have a poem.....Stick and stones....Truth actually does hurt those who take offence doesn't it Bottom Feeder Inc? ROFLMAO!


this link has a good idea on per diem and also how much these companies are MAKING OFF OF YOU to "calculate" your per diem charges! It's a rip off and once you see how it's done you'll realize that these Bottom Feeder Inc. companies do NOT have your best interests in mind...just your work for less pay in mind!

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...pany-here/94800-werner-per-diem-fraud-10.html

Start on page 10 and go from there. That first post is the one you just read above!!

Good luck and stay away from that per diem rip off SCAM!
Rollover