How many paychecks are in a year?
It depends on how you're paid, and the number that surprises people is 26. Paid every two weeks you get 26 paychecks a year, not 24 — 52 weeks divided by two. Paid twice a month you get exactly 24. Weekly is 52, monthly is 12. The gap between 26 and 24 is why a biweekly budget has two months a year with three paydays in them.
The four pay schedules, and what each gives you
Weekly is 52 paychecks. Biweekly — every other Friday — is 26. Semi-monthly, usually the 15th and the last day, is 24. Monthly is 12.
Biweekly and semi-monthly sound like the same thing and are not. Semi-monthly always lands twice in a month. Biweekly lands every fourteen days regardless of what the calendar is doing, so it drifts, and twice a year that drift puts a third payday inside one month.
Why the two extra paychecks matter more than they sound
Most bills are monthly. If you plan around "two paychecks a month" you are budgeting as though you get 24, and the other two show up as a surprise instead of a plan.
Run it the other way and the surprise becomes the only slack you have. Divide each monthly bill by 26 instead of 24 and every paycheck carries slightly less; the two extra ones then arrive with nothing already claiming them.
What that looks like on a real bill
A $1,450 rent is $17,400 a year. Split across 26 paychecks that is $669.24 each time. Split across 24 it is $725 — which feels safer but leaves you funding rent out of a paycheck that has already been spent twice a year.
The $55.76 difference per paycheck is what buys you two genuinely free paydays.
Written by Larder, makers of an envelope budgeting app for iPhone. Last reviewed .