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Action Toolkit

Adulting

Paycheck Reality Check

They offered you $52,000. Here's what actually lands.

Adulting utility

What actually lands in your account

State income tax4%

A handful of states charge none. Search '[your state] income tax rate'.

Retirement contribution4%

Set this to at least your employer's full match — that part is free money.

What you were offered

$52,000

What actually lands

$38,565

$1,483 per cheque · you keep 74%

The gap is $13,436 a year. You are not bad with money — you were budgeting against a number that was never real.

  • Federal income taxestimate−$3,790
  • State income tax4%−$1,925
  • Social Security6.2%−$3,112
  • Medicare1.45%−$728
  • Health insuranceyour share−$1,800
  • Retirement (still yours)4%−$2,080

Nobody tells you this: your employer pays another $3,840 in FICA on top of your wage, which never shows on your stub. Estimates only — real withholding depends on your filing status, state and credits. Check your actual stub.

What you type here is saved automatically — on this device, and to your account if you have one.

About this tool

Turn a salary or hourly rate into the number that reaches your account, with every deduction shown: FICA, federal and state tax, insurance, retirement.

Best for

For a first job, a job offer you're weighing up, or anyone who has never understood their own pay stub.

Expected outcomes

Generate actionable structure, optimized formulas, and verified indicators under strict outcome standards.

Take-home per chequeEvery deductionThe gapPrintable breakdown

Goes well with

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This tool appears in

A number is a start. Here’s what to do with it.

This journey uses Paycheck Reality Check as one step in a longer sequence of real actions.

25

What Your Paycheck Actually Says

→ Someone who can read a pay stub

Open journey

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A playbook is the short workflow between a tool and a journey — a handful of steps that end in a finished document.