I got an e-mail today about “Flex Spending Accounts”.

“Cool, I can keep more of my money” I thought.

The person in charge of them, whether sub-consciously or not, thought differently:

“For Flex Spending Accounts – money is taken out of your paycheck tax free and held for reimbursement of your health care or childcare expenses. The money is direct deposited into your bank account. I won’t get into specifics but basically you save money (approx 25% depending on your tax situation) because the government does not take their cut of it.”

If you didn’t catch what I mean, the key is right here in this line:

“the government does not take their cut of it”

Looking at your money as if somehow the government is entitled to the egregious chunk they take out of it is part of what is wrong with this country. The line should have read:

“the government does not take a cut of it”

or more accurately:

“the government does not steal an outrageous portion of it”

or maybe more nicely put:

“the government let’s you keep more of your money”

It takes me approx 1 minute and 45 seconds to go from my desk to the bathroom (use it, wash) and back.

I do this at a minimum of 4 times a day (sometimes more. I drink a lot of water/coffee/coke).

There are approx 260 working days in a year.

I am paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 an hour, although whether that is before or after tax I don’t remember, nor does it really matter I guess.

So:

7 minutes a day in the bathroom + 260 work days a year = 1,820 minutes a year in the bathroom.

1,820 minutes = 30.3 hours

30.3 hours a year in the bathroom on company time = $636.30 a year to go to the bathroom.

Obviously this number is grossly underestimated since I can sometimes spend around 30 minutes in the bathroom when I have a “long” visit, plus several short visits. Some days I take 1 short visit every 30 minutes (when I drink around 50oz of water, plus 4 cups of coffee, which I have actually done, although I’m sure this only happens about once a month. I chose 4 short visits a day because this is the absolute minimum).