Paycheck Calculator

Estimates what actually lands in your account, starting from what you're paid on paper.

This is the calculator to run before you touch the Budget Builder, because the Builder wants your real take-home figure and most people only know their gross.

Inputs

Income type — Hourly or Salary. Hourly asks for your rate and hours; salary asks for the annual figure.

Amount — your rate or salary.

Pay frequency — how often you're paid, weekly through to less frequent cycles.

Country — searchable, with 36 supported.

State or region — where applicable. In the US this is required, since state tax varies enormously.

Filing status — Single and the other statuses available for your country.

What you get

An estimate of your take-home pay per period, with the deductions applied.

Why run it

Before building your first budget. The Builder's income section wants what arrives, not what's promised. Guessing here skews every projection downstream.

Before accepting a job offer. A salary in one state and the same salary in another are different amounts of money. So are two offers with different filing situations.

Before moving. State tax differences can be worth more than the raise you're moving for.

When changing your withholding or filing status. See the effect before it shows up in a real paycheck.

Comparing two situations

The most valuable use is comparison. Run it twice and change one variable:

›Same salary, two different states
›Two different offers
›Hourly at one rate against salary at another

The absolute numbers are estimates. The difference between two runs is reliable, and that's usually the actual question.

Hourly and overtime

For hourly income, enter your standard hours. If overtime is occasional, leave it out — the resulting figure is your dependable baseline, which is exactly what a budget should be built on.

If overtime is genuinely consistent, include a conservative amount. Better to plan low and have surplus than to build a plan on hours that dry up.

Accuracy

This is an estimate, and it won't know about everything your employer does — retirement contributions, health premiums, union dues, garnishments, or local taxes below the state level.

Check it against a real payslip once you have one. If it's consistently off in the same direction, use the real figure in your budget and treat the calculator as a comparison tool rather than a source of truth.

Take the result to Income & Current Savings in the Builder.