18.000 euro per year?!

No dream. No joke. Pure reality. 💜 By combining different budgets, I reach a digital flex portfolio in Payflip of just over 18,000 EUR this year. "Where does such a large amount come from," you might wonder?

• • (Employer cost of my) year-end bonus of more than 6,000 EUR
  • Mobility budget of nearly 11,000 EUR
  • Remote working budget of 450 EUR
  • Learning & development budget of 750 EUR
  • Home office budget of 450 EUR

The biggest chunk is obviously the mobility budget of nearly 11,000 EUR annually. This nice sum is made available to me because I opt out of a company car of the same value. I live in 'nine thousand' Ghent and don't really feel like using a car as a means of transport (#millennial). As you'll read below, I much prefer to spend that amount entirely (so "net") on alternative mobility. Talk about a salary lifehack!

Payflip also prefers to leave the spending of the (employer cost of the) year-end bonus up to me. As an employer, they are anyhow obligated by sectoral regulations in PC 200 to pay this out. But if I have to wait until December for the highly taxed cash amount, the effect of that investment for Payflip disappears like snow before the sun. That's why I find it super useful to spend this budget throughout the year on, among other things, the repayment of my personal pension savings plan.

The thematic budgets around learning & development, remote working, and home office are a real treat! Consistently in line with the HR principles that make the Payflip culture so interesting. Be sure to read on to the bottom, where I'll tell you more ;-)

Mortgage loan, Mindspace, European Sleeper, electric bike,...

Through our platform, I can make choices with my budgets throughout the entire year (literally from January 1 to November 30) 24/7.

For example, I consciously chose to spend part of my mobility budget on the repayment of my mortgage, seeing as I work from home more than 60% of the time. A life-changing net extra that brings a smile to my face every month when I look at my pay slip. Yep, you read that right, I like reading my pay slip! 😁 Besides, I also used the mobility budget for purchasing two return tickets for the European Sleeper night train to Berlin, for me and my partner. A must for every public transport believer who wants to get to know Berlin's club scene without green heartache!

And Payflip made the trip to Berlin even nicer and longer! Because of our flexible remote working culture, I worked for two weeks in the co-working space Mindspace, fully financed with my remote working budget.

But I operate mostly from my own place in Ghent. I don't live very close to the Gent-Sint-Pieters station, so I quickly resorted to my year-end bonus budget on our platform to provide myself with an electric bike through the intervention of o2o, a Ghent partner of Payflip around bike leasing. I'm sold. Who said that electric bikes were for boomers?! 

That I bought a (way too expensive, blame me) pink ergonomic mouse with my home office budget on the advice of the physiotherapist that was reimbursed to me through Alan, is no surprise, right? Besides, I was actually just relieved that I didn't get the umpteenth second screen standard on my first day at Payflip (after I had already managed to collect two through my previous employers), but could just choose myself how I wanted to furnish my home office.

That I really want to go to the Amsterdam Customer Success Conference with the learning & development budget, I still have to announce, but you get the scoop!

Boost for my belief in the Payflip culture 💜

Maybe as a concluding note, just to dot the "i", I find it a very strong HR signal from Payflip that they "cut their coat according to their cloth" in terms of remuneration. Payflip compensates transparently, objectively, motivatingly, and flexibly (read all about our salary policy here). 

The concrete translation of HR values around flexibility, sustainability, and ownership I have never seen translated into a salary package before. Compensation and HR are part of the same (purple 💜) puzzle with us, and that really contributes to the employee experience.

And no, I didn’t get a bonus writing this article. 😉