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Career
Career decisions usually come down to more than the number on the offer letter. These three calculators adjust for tax, benefits, and time so you can compare on equal footing — and the terms below fill in the vocabulary that comes up along the way.
Key terms
The vocabulary that comes up across career decisions — this site is built to help you see the fuller picture, not just crunch numbers.
- Cost-of-living index
- A score comparing everyday prices in one city to another (New York = 100).
- Effective tax rate
- The average rate you actually pay across all your income — lower than your top tax bracket.
- Marginal tax rate
- The tax rate applied to your next dollar of income — higher than your effective rate.
- Gross vs net income
- Gross is what you're paid before deductions; net is what actually lands in your account.
- RSU
- Restricted Stock Units — company shares you're granted but don't fully own until they vest.
- Vesting
- The schedule by which you gradually earn full ownership of stock or retirement contributions.
- Signing bonus
- A one-time payment offered to accept a job, sometimes with a repayment clause if you leave early.
- 401(k) match
- Free money — your employer contributes to your retirement account based on what you put in.
- Self-employment tax
- The 15.3% tax freelancers pay, covering both the employee and employer share of Social Security/Medicare.
- FICA
- The US payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare, split between employee and employer.
- 1099 vs W-2
- 1099 means you're an independent contractor; W-2 means you're a formal employee with taxes withheld.
- Capitalized interest
- Unpaid loan interest that gets added to your principal, so you then pay interest on it too.
- Future value
- What money today will be worth later, after compounding at an assumed rate of return.
- Direct Unsubsidized Loan
- A federal student loan that starts accruing interest immediately, unlike subsidized loans.