01
What you actually take home
Start from gross pay and apply an editable effective tax-rate assumption. The calculator does not pretend to know your exact federal, state, local and payroll taxes.
THE JOB OFFER REALITY CHECK
A bigger salary.
But a better life?
A $20,000 raise can disappear into rent, taxes and daily costs. Compare what you actually keep in two places—before committing to a move.
✓ Free, no signup✓ Edit every assumption✓ Works without personal data
↗ Job offer vs current pay⌂ Rent and real expenses≋ Tax-rate assumptions◷ Moving break-even
01 / YOUR PERSONAL NUMBERS
Make the move add up.
Start with a complete example, or enter your own two offers. Every input can be changed.
Try a complete example:All example figures are illustrative—not salary or rent quotes.
Quick phrase parser, not an AI chatbot. It fills recognized inputs locally; you review them before using the result.
01
Choose your two places
Exact metro areas for occupational benchmarks, or any place for personal estimates.
CURRENT
Enter an annual salary or choose an available occupation and metro.
POSSIBLE MOVE
Enter an annual salary or choose an available occupation and metro.
Reference wages never replace your entries without your permission.
02
Pay & housing
Use actual job offers and rent quotes where possible.
03
The rest of your budget
Estimate after-tax income using your own effective-tax assumptions; these are not state-specific tax calculations.
02 / HOUSING REFERENCE
Not sure what rent to enter?
Look up a HUD Fair Market Rent for a specific U.S. county. It's a government reference for standard-quality rental housing—not a live listing, not a guaranteed price and not necessarily a metro-wide average.
Select the actual county. This lookup does not silently match BLS metro areas to different HUD geographies.
Explore official data sourcesHUD rent reference lookupLoading official county-level reference…
Type at least three letters to find an area.
HUD FMR includes rent and most tenant-paid utilities. Source year appears above only when verified source data is available.
MORE THAN A SALARY COMPARISON
The 3 numbers that change the decision.
Two job offers aren't directly comparable until you put them on the same monthly basis.
02
What life costs in each place
Subtract the rent and the other recurring costs you expect to pay. A lower rent can outweigh a lower gross salary; a larger raise can vanish in a high-cost area.
03
How long the move takes to pay off
Include movers, deposits, transport and setup. We show the break-even timeline and how much gross salary would make the move worthwhile over your chosen horizon.
A DECISION, NOT A DATA DUMP
Bring a real offer. Leave with a clearer number.
Use BLS occupational medians for context, HUD rent references for rough planning, then replace both with what your employer and landlord actually quoted. That's where the calculator gets useful.
Compare my moveQuestions worth asking before you accept
- How much more will be left after housing?
- What if my tax assumption is 3 points too low?
- How many months before moving costs are recovered?
- What salary makes the entire move break even?
- What changes if I can reduce rent by $300?
QUICK ANSWERS
Before you make the move
How is “money left over” calculated?
For each location we take annual gross salary × (1 − your effective tax assumption) ÷ 12, then subtract monthly rent and all other monthly expenses. The destination-minus-current difference shows the gain or loss. The one-time moving cost is applied to the longer-term result, not deducted every month.
Does this calculate my exact taxes?
No. Effective tax rates are entered by you. Actual take-home pay depends on filing status, location, benefits, deductions, payroll taxes and other income. Use a current paycheck or qualified tax guidance for decisions.
Are BLS wages the offers employers pay?
No. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics are survey-based estimates from a published period. A median is a reference for an occupation and geographic area, not a current vacancy or guaranteed offer.
Is HUD Fair Market Rent the going rent?
No. FMR is a program reference for standard-quality rental housing, based on HUD's methodology, and its geography may differ from the BLS metro definition. Always review current housing listings and actual lease costs before deciding.