What to do with a bonus, a 13th salary or a tax refund: plan it first

The text from the bank arrives on a Tuesday morning: "Your account has been credited." The bonus is in. There is a small moment of celebration, and someone at home says the most natural sentence in the world: "We've earned this."

Two weeks later, it's hard to say where it went. Some on the holiday. Some on closing the overdraft. A good dinner, something for the flat, a few things nobody remembers. It wasn't wasted on nonsense. It just dispersed.

There is a quieter version of the same moment. A text from the fund: "Your keren hishtalmut is now liquid." The keren hishtalmut (קרן השתלמות) is a tax-advantaged savings fund, and six years of saving suddenly sound like a present. Before you've finished your coffee, there are three ideas about what to do with it.

Windfall money doesn't stay long

Part of you wants the extra money to change something; part of you wants recognition. Both deserve a hearing.

You want a cushion at last, the overdraft gone, something moving for the long run.

And you are tired: "We worked hard all year. We saved for six years. We deserve something now, without spreadsheets." Spending it all brings relief and a sense that someone noticed the effort. Whoever went without all year needs to see that going without led somewhere.

Some households try the opposite: "This time it all goes to savings." A week later comes a small withdrawal for the holiday, and with it, guilt. Both roads end in the same place: the money dissolves into the current account.

Mental accounting: how the mind counts extra money

This isn't a weakness of yours; it is how all of us are built. The economist Richard Thaler (1999) described mental accounting: we don't treat every shekel the same, but sort money into accounts in our heads, by where it came from and what we called it. And researchers led by Hal Arkes (1994) showed that money perceived as a windfall, the kind that "fell from the sky", is spent more readily than money people felt they had earned.

A bonus, a 13th salary where there is one, a tax refund: all of them land in the head as "extra". And a study fund that just became liquid? The word "liquid" frames six years of your own saving as something new. It isn't new. It was yours all along; you can simply reach it now.

The "all to savings" plan fails for a plain reason: it ignores your need for recognition. That need doesn't leave; it waits, and in the end it wins. What works is a plan that includes it from the start.

Splitting a bonus on paper, before the money arrives

The idea is simple: the split for your next extra money written in percentages before it arrives, with a name for every part and one part for enjoyment. No guilt about what goes out. No waiting for the money to dissolve into the current account. No giving up the celebration.

The enjoyment part is not a compromise. It is the piece that holds the whole plan together.

Two ways to receive a bonus

Aspect	All of it to savings	A split with a name for each part
The first week	A small "just this once" withdrawal	The enjoyment part goes out, as planned
How it feels	Feels right at first, guilty later	Calm: every shekel knows where it's going
A month on	Hard to tell what's left	The cushion and the goal grew, the holiday is booked
The next bonus	Starting from zero again	The same split, a different amount

All of it to savingsA split with a name for each part

All of it to savings

The first week

A small "just this once" withdrawal

How it feels

Feels right at first, guilty later

A month on

Hard to tell what's left

The next bonus

Starting from zero again

One sentence before the steps: when the extra money is a study fund that has become liquid, advice on what to do with it, leave it, withdraw part or withdraw all, is pension advice under Israeli law when given to a specific person. This article describes how things work, and a licensed pension adviser can look at your own case.

What to do with a bonus: from payslip to transfer

Step 1: know when, and roughly how much

A bonus usually shows on the payslip in a known month. A 13th salary, if your workplace pays one, comes on a fixed date. A tax refund, if one is due, you check on the Tax Authority's site rather than assume. And the date a study fund becomes liquid is on its annual statement. According to the Tax Authority, gains in a keren hishtalmut are tax-free after six years, on deposits up to the favoured cap; any further condition is worth checking with the Tax Authority or the fund itself.

Step 2: the split, in percentages you choose

Four parts, in your own percentages. As an illustration only, not a recommendation, on a 12,000 ILS bonus:

No overdraft? That share moves to one of the others. Some households direct a part to long-term investing; the decision is yours. What matters is that the percentages are written before the money arrives, because once it is in the account, every percentage sounds like a sacrifice. The cushion has its own article, and so does getting out of the overdraft.

Step 3: a name and a goal for each part

Every part you save gets a goal with an amount and a date. "Emergency cushion", "Car 2028", "Summer trip". The name is what turns extra money into money with a job. With a study fund about to become liquid, people describe naming the money before the liquidity date, and only then weighing whether to leave it in the fund, withdraw part or withdraw all. The decision is yours. One question helps: "If this money had a name, what would it be?" If the answer is "we don't know yet", that is an answer too; the money can wait for it. The fund itself, including fee comparison on Gemel-Net, is covered in the article on keren hishtalmut.

The goal that received its share of the bonus

Monthly deposit₪800

Time to the target

21 months

Step 4: move it the day it lands

Not next week. That day. Each goal gets its share, and the enjoyment part goes out, no sums, no apologies.

In AlphaHome: create savings goals with a name, an amount and a date, and record a contribution to each when the money arrives. You can also tell the assistant "Add 2,000 ILS to the emergency goal" and it records the contribution. The dashboard shows how much each goal still needs per month. On the pension page, the "Needs attention" strip shows how many days remain until a study fund becomes liquid, based on what you entered; the page doesn't recommend what to do with it.

Tax and pension figures are as of September 2026; ceilings update yearly.

When the money got ahead of the plan

It already dissolved into the current account. It happens to everyone. Whatever is left gets split today, by the same percentages, with no reckoning over what already went. A third of a bonus with a name beats a whole bonus without one.

The bonus was smaller than expected. The percentages stay; only the amounts change. The enjoyment part stays too, just smaller. That is what keeps the habit alive.

You withdrew from the fund and regret it. That wasn't a flaw of character; it was a decision made before the money had a name. Give what remains a name and a goal, and carry on from there. Next time, the name arrives before the text message.

Extra money with an address

With the split written in advance, "your account has been credited" sounds different. No fog, no argument, no guilt. One transfer per goal, and a good evening with the enjoyment part. Without a decision in advance, the next extra money will go where the last one went. With one, it goes where you sent it, celebration included.

The pleasure of a bonus isn't going anywhere. It simply gets a line of its own, beside three others, on one page.

In our house, extra money has an address.

This week, write down the split in percentages for your next extra money, a bonus or a tax refund, and create a savings goal for each part you choose to save.