Just started using a salary calculator wrong for 6 months in Denver

I kept plugging in my base pay as $75,000 and getting confused why my take-home was so low. Turns out that calculator assumed I was single with no deductions, but I have a kid and max out my 401k. I was budgeting way too tight and missing out on some benefits at work. Anyone else find a tool they used wrong and it messed up their planning?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona98512d ago

Took me six months to realize my "salary calculator" was just me guessing wrong and eating ramen for dinner.

carr.lee12d ago

Started laughing because I literally did the same thing with my grocery budget. Thought I was saving so much money but I was just eating rice and beans for six weeks straight.

wendyg4311d ago

Oh man, I did the exact same thing with my paycheck estimator... I was putting in $52,000 but forgot to add in my health insurance premiums and my HSA contributions. For like 3 months I thought I had way more spending money than I actually did. What finally helped me was asking my HR person to print out a real sample paycheck from their system, then I compared it to the calculator numbers side by side. Once I saw where every dollar was going it clicked, and I stopped budgeting for money that was never actually hitting my account.