How much will I actually make with my Biglaw salary? Forum

[Trogdor]

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out living arrangements for when I make the move to NY with my wife and son this fall. In doing that, I need to determine how much I'll actually pull in with my Biglaw salary. Last year, during my SA, I was making about $8,500/month, but I wasn't claiming my wife and son as dependents and I wasn't paying for health insurance (at least I don't think I was?). Does anyone have a rough estimate as to how much that $8,500 figure will change once I factor in health insurance for my family and any possible decrease in my taxes from claiming my wife and son as dependents? I don't own a house or anything like that, so I don't think I will be able to claim any other deductions.

Thanks for the help.

[haus]

There is likely some variation in how much contribution you will be expected to make for your insurance (and depending on which programs you select), but you can figure out the basic taxes using a payroll calculator site such as...

https://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/

[ur_hero]

Yeha, you just gotta take 5 minutes to input the numbers and do the math based on your own circumstances...

Monthly Salary
-Federal & State & City Taxes, SocialSecurity, Etc.
-Health Insurance & Other Benefits (eye,dental, etc.)
- Automatic Contributions to a Retirement Plan

ETC....ETC....ETC...

Likely you'll end up somewhere between 8000-9000 on a 180k scale I figure? You're a lawyer though. Even if some of us struggle w/ numbers, you're smart enough to do this kind of basic math... I have faith in you!

[Pokemon]

Op clearly is looking at beyond taxes but the effect of insurance.

[CPA-->JD]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

[Npret]

Just ask your firm what insurance rates will be. They should be able to email it to you.

[EncyclopediaOrange]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

[CPA-->JD]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

[Anonymous User]

How would you change this for DC?

[Anonymous User]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

So even with 20k for 401(k) and 15k for healthcare, a first year still has around 10k a month to throw around? I'm not sure how that squares with the poster above who said you'll get like 8k a month but yours has numbers and shit so.

10k a month. Is there any reason why a single guy with no kids couldn't put away 4K a month towards loans?

3k rent
4k loans
2k expenses
1k savings/vacation fund/buy cool shit to make you feel less empty

[Anonymous User]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

So even with 20k for 401(k) and 15k for healthcare, a first year still has around 10k a month to throw around? I'm not sure how that squares with the poster above who said you'll get like 8k a month but yours has numbers and shit so.

10k a month. Is there any reason why a single guy with no kids couldn't put away 4K a month towards loans?

3k rent
4k loans
2k expenses
1k savings/vacation fund/buy cool shit to make you feel less empty

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

[CPA-->JD]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

So even with 20k for 401(k) and 15k for healthcare, a first year still has around 10k a month to throw around? I'm not sure how that squares with the poster above who said you'll get like 8k a month but yours has numbers and shit so.

10k a month. Is there any reason why a single guy with no kids couldn't put away 4K a month towards loans?

3k rent
4k loans
2k expenses
1k savings/vacation fund/buy cool shit to make you feel less empty

I could be missing something(pretty sure there is no AMT but too lazy to check 100%) but it seems consistent with what a friend of mine said he took home a year.

[Hikikomorist]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

So even with 20k for 401(k) and 15k for healthcare, a first year still has around 10k a month to throw around? I'm not sure how that squares with the poster above who said you'll get like 8k a month but yours has numbers and shit so.

10k a month. Is there any reason why a single guy with no kids couldn't put away 4K a month towards loans?

3k rent
4k loans
2k expenses
1k savings/vacation fund/buy cool shit to make you feel less empty

I could be missing something(pretty sure there is no AMT but too lazy to check 100%) but it seems consistent with what a friend of mine said he took home a year.

Dumb question, but did you include payroll taxes and Medicare in federal taxes?

[cavalier1138]

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

That seems pretty low for the tax bracket. $8,000 a month would mean you were paying a 47% tax rate. I know people think that tax rates are high in the US, but they aren't that high.

[CPA-->JD]

I posted this in cls c/o 2020 thread.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It should be pretty accurate.

Where are the 401k numbers coming from? Thanks for posting!

You can download and change any of the numbers in red. So you can input your own 401k numbers if you want.

Also, the tax tables are for married filing jointly but should give you a ballpark even if your single and you can change the amount of personal exemptions on the fed tab if you have defendants.

Let me know if you have other questions.

So even with 20k for 401(k) and 15k for healthcare, a first year still has around 10k a month to throw around? I'm not sure how that squares with the poster above who said you'll get like 8k a month but yours has numbers and shit so.

10k a month. Is there any reason why a single guy with no kids couldn't put away 4K a month towards loans?

3k rent
4k loans
2k expenses
1k savings/vacation fund/buy cool shit to make you feel less empty

I could be missing something(pretty sure there is no AMT but too lazy to check 100%) but it seems consistent with what a friend of mine said he took home a year.

Dumb question, but did you include payroll taxes and Medicare in federal taxes?

Lol your right I missed Fica. I'll update soon

[RCSOB657]

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

That seems pretty low for the tax bracket. $8,000 a month would mean you were paying a 47% tax rate. I know people think that tax rates are high in the US, but they aren't that high.

Well, you are paying roughly 3.6 to the city and 6.6 to the state. You could get that high including fed.

[Anonymous User]

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

That seems pretty low for the tax bracket. $8,000 a month would mean you were paying a 47% tax rate. I know people think that tax rates are high in the US, but they aren't that high.

Well, you are paying roughly 3.6 to the city and 6.6 to the state. You could get that high including fed.

Originally quoted OP here. I am a first-year in NYC right now. I am not currently contributing to 401k while I try to knock out loans, I pay for the standard health/dental insurance, and my biweekly check is a little more than $4k.

[Anonymous User]

2nd Year here. If you want to get a sense of how large your paycheck will be, I've found paycheck city to be very accurate. The two main adjustments you have to make to the default amount that paycheckcity spits out:

1) Social Security taxes are capped at $7,886, which means they'll phase out about 2/3 of the way through the year. You can adjust PCC to show how this works -- see below.

2) 401k contributions reduce your AGI (obviously). I think there's a way to factor this into paycheckcity, but am too lazy to work out how to do it.


So if you enter 190,000 into PCC, 2 federal, 5 state allowances (this should be default for unmarrieds) gross income, you get 7307.69 gross/4611.59 net.

$127,200 in gross earnings is when the phaseout should happen. If you do the same PCC calculation but make "Gross Salary YTD" 150,000, to show your paycheck after the SS tax is phased out, you get 7307.69 gross/5064.67 net (4611.59 + 453.08 SS tax avoided). Stated differently, your paycheck will be slightly larger in the last third of the year, after you reach >$127,200 in gross earnings.

Those amounts are consistent with my paycheck not factoring in 401k contributions, which increase the size of your paycheck slightly (treating 401k contributions as part of your paycheck) (since they lower your taxable income). You can also just factor the boneus in as a one-time payment at the end of the year taxed at your marginal rate. Don't contribute to HSA so I don't know how that would change things.

[Anonymous User]

I'm the anon above: forgot the most important part about the post, which is LJL @ that spreadsheet budgeting spending 11k per month. Jeet cristo

[dixiecupdrinking]

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

That seems pretty low for the tax bracket. $8,000 a month would mean you were paying a 47% tax rate. I know people think that tax rates are high in the US, but they aren't that high.

They're pretty damn close working NYC biglaw.

[Npret]

Putting aside any 401k contribution and whatever bonus your firm hands out, the take-home amount each month is much closer to 8k than 10k. The calculations in the Google doc are a little misleading because the one-time yearly bonus is included and factored in as if it was paid in monthly increments.

That seems pretty low for the tax bracket. $8,000 a month would mean you were paying a 47% tax rate. I know people think that tax rates are high in the US, but they aren't that high.

They're pretty damn close working NYC biglaw.

Exactly. Federal, state, city and FICA. I used to assume about 50% take home after everything ( including insurance) as a rough calculation.

I agree that you shouldn't calculate one time payment st as if you are getting them every month.