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Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

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Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:57 pm

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Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Lsat Airbender

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Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:34 pm

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:20 pm


Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:27 pm

Federal taxes are what they are. Illinois state tax is flat rate just under 5%. But then there's insurance, HSA, pre tax commuter, 401(k), etc. Do you have dependents. Etc. Just way too many variables for anyone to give an answer that will fit your situation.

Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:32 pm

The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:20 pm
Googled this in about 2 seconds:

https://smartasset.com/taxes/illinois-p ... calculator
Thanks, but not what I was asking for.

Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:33 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:27 pm
Federal taxes are what they are. Illinois state tax is flat rate just under 5%. But then there's insurance, HSA, pre tax commuter, 401(k), etc. Do you have dependents. Etc. Just way too many variables for anyone to give an answer that will fit your situation.
Still hopeful that someone will give me an answer anyway, but thanks!

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Sackboy

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Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Sackboy » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:32 pm
The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:20 pm
Googled this in about 2 seconds:

https://smartasset.com/taxes/illinois-p ... calculator
Thanks, but not what I was asking for.
Don't be a dunce. This is literally what you were asking for. Take that amount and divide it by 24. I use this site for my financial planning, and it's quite accurate. Put in your income, set it to Chicago, and then set whatever 401(k)/HSA contribution you're going to make (you put it all in the 401(k) line on the website).

Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:37 pm

Ok, sorry for instilling such controversy everyone, was sincerely just hoping for a person to tell me what their actual paycheck looks like, but I can see that I've gone too far this time.

Anonymous User
Posts: 432523
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:46 pm

I'm happy to share my specific numbers as a second-year associate last year. I'm a single filer, have no dependents, and therefore claimed one allowance. My health care plan cost me $110 a month. I maxed out my HSA at $3000 and split those contributions evenly over the course of the year. I maxed out my pre-tax 401(k) at $19,500, which I split basically evenly during the first six months of the year. I also contributed $21,500 to my voluntary post-tax 401(k) (i.e., to a mega back door roth), which I split basically evenly among the final six months of the year. On July 1, my salary changed from $200k to $215k (which caused gross pay to go from $8333 to $8962 per every two weeks). On September 1, my gross pay hit around $140k and therefore I no longer had to contribute to social security taxes for the remainder of the calendar year (which caused my take-home pay to increase by $455 every two weeks). I suspect I will likely owe a couple thousand dollars or so upon filing my 2021 taxes later this year, but am not positive.

Here were my typical paycheck amounts, with each from a 2-week pay period:
  • 2 weeks in January 2021: take-home $4331 [$200k salary, paying social security contributions, and paying $1645 into pre-tax 401(k) each paycheck]
  • 2 weeks in June 2021: take-home $3745 [$200k salary, still paying social security contributions, but now I maxed my pre-tax 401(k) and instead started to pay $1680 into post-tax 401(k) each paycheck from here on out]
  • 2 weeks in July 2021: take-home $4091 [now have a new $215k salary, but still paying social security contributions and pay $1680 into post-tax 401(k) each paycheck]
  • 2 weeks in September 2021 until end of year: take-home $4,556 [same $215k salary, same $1680 into post-tax 401(k), but now no longer paying social security contributions each paycheck]
I received $30k EOY bonus, $16k special bonus, and above-market $5k bonus (none of which should affect the above, which were just normal paycheck payouts). My end of year figures were $265k gross pay, $75.5k in federal/state taxes [made up of 50.5k federal income tax, 11.8k Illinois income tax, 4.3k medicare, and 8.8k social security], and $143k of net take-home pay that hit my checking account. This "net take-home pay" excludes my contributions of pre-tax $3k for the HSA, pre-tax $19.5k for pre-tax 401(k), and post-tax $21.5k for post-tax 401(k).

Edit: RIP to the OP's post. Hope this is somehow still useful for some insane person looking to follow a similar strategy, lol. I also imagine that it could be helpful for associates with a less specialized approach to post their take-home pay. There must be a ton of associates that are single filers, have one allowance, max out the pre-tax 401(k) evenly over the year, perhaps do the same for their HSA, and then call it a day. They could pretty easily share their current salary and their take-home pay (and note whether it was from before or after the social security threshold kicked in).

The Lsat Airbender

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Posts: 1801
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:34 pm

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:21 pm

Sackboy wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:35 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:32 pm
The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:20 pm
Googled this in about 2 seconds:

https://smartasset.com/taxes/illinois-p ... calculator
Thanks, but not what I was asking for.
Don't be a dunce. This is literally what you were asking for. Take that amount and divide it by 24. I use this site for my financial planning, and it's quite accurate. Put in your income, set it to Chicago, and then set whatever 401(k)/HSA contribution you're going to make (you put it all in the 401(k) line on the website).
Some will need to divide by 26, which is yet another reason why it's better to just do the math yourself (takes like, 60 seconds with one of these calculators) rather than voyeuristically look at other people's paystubs

The Lsat Airbender

Gold
Posts: 1801
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:34 pm

Re: Chicago BigLaw Salary

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:34 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:37 pm
Ok, sorry for instilling such controversy everyone, was sincerely just hoping for a person to tell me what their actual paycheck looks like, but I can see that I've gone too far this time.
lol, you martyr

Protip: people will be nicer to you if you don't inhabit the middle of the Venn diagram of

* choosing-beggar questions ("Thanks [for this thing that is objectively more useful than what I asked for], but not what I asked for")

* unnecessary use of anon

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