Run the Numbers

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Your work saves to your account as you type.

How this works (tap to open or close)

Start: your two careers carry in from your Career Research Sheet. Pick where you'd live for each one, any county in the United States, and the tool pulls the real entry salary for that job in that place from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Or compare one career in two different places. Then guess what you'd have left each month and lock the guess before the math can shape it.
Take home: the tool converts each salary to take home using this year's federal tables and the tax rules of the state you picked. You can check it against SmartAsset, and the tool will tell you if your SmartAsset number is one paycheck instead of one month.
The loan: what your pathway costs, what you'd borrow, and what that costs every month for ten years.
The budget: real costs for the place you picked, one row at a time, from HUD and the Economic Policy Institute. Pick your situation, check each number against your real life, and change any that aren't you. When you change one, say why in a line. One row, the life part, is all yours to fill.
What's left: the number that matters, before and after the loan, plus where the biggest gap between your two careers actually is.
Your analysis: four short written parts. Then Build and Copy, and paste once into the Career Financial Comparison box in Canvas.

Do your work on the Canvas page itself. Your browser keeps a tool's saved work separate when it's opened in its own tab, so a budget built in another tab won't show up here.

Start

Two careers, two salaries, one guess

Your careers carry in from your Career Research Sheet. Pick where you'd actually live for each one. The salary fills in from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the 25th percentile for that job in that place, which is about where a first few years' paycheck lands.

Do this: choose what you're comparing, pick a place for each column, check the salary, slide your gut guess for what you'd have left each month after bills, and press Lock. The take home step opens after that.

Career 1

Career name

Where would you live? Pick the state, then the county. Every county in the country is here. Entry salary in that place, per year Gross, before taxes. Fills in from BLS. You can type your own figure if you have a better one, like a real job offer.

Gut guess: what's left each month after bills? Your honest guess before any math. Zero is a real answer. So is a negative number.

$500

Career 2

Career name

Gut guess: what's left each month after bills?

$500

One line: why those guesses? What are you picturing? A room, your own place, a car, living at home?

Part 1

Gross to take home

The salary on BLS is gross. Before you see a dollar, federal income tax, state income tax (nine states have none), sometimes a city or county tax, and Social Security and Medicare come out. In California, disability insurance does too. The tool runs this year's tables for a single filer with no dependents. Your real check will differ a little. The shape won't.

Do this: read both take home numbers. If your job will take anything else out of your check before you see it, like a retirement contribution or union dues, add a monthly amount. Your health insurance goes in the budget's health row instead, so leave it out here. If nothing else comes out, leave it at 0. Then, if you want, check the tool against SmartAsset.

How the tool figures take home (and where the numbers come from)

Federal income tax uses the 2026 brackets for a single filer with the $16,100 standard deduction (IRS, October 2025). California income tax uses the 2025 single filer brackets with the $5,706 standard deduction, the latest the state has published. Every other state uses the Tax Foundation's 2026 table of brackets, standard deductions, and personal exemptions. New York City's own income tax is included for its five counties. In states where cities or counties tax income, the tool adds that state's average local rate and says so. Credits, and the small disability and family leave payroll taxes some states charge, aren't included. Social Security is 6.2 percent and Medicare 1.45 percent, plus 0.9 percent on wages above $200,000. California SDI is 1.3 percent for 2026 (EDD). No credits, no 401k, no itemizing. That's why SmartAsset may land a few dollars away. If SmartAsset is hundreds of dollars lower, you probably copied a paycheck, not a month.

Part 2

What the pathway costs, and what the loan takes every month

Education is an investment with a price tag and a monthly bill. Pick the pathway you'd actually take for each career, estimate the total cost, and type what you'd really borrow. The tool turns that into a monthly payment on the standard ten year federal plan at this year's undergraduate rate.

Do this: for each career, tap the pathway, type the total cost (your research sheet's estimate is a fine start), then type the amount you'd borrow and say why in a line or two. If family, grants, or work would cover it, borrow less. Zero is allowed and honest. Borrowing the full cost can be the right call too, as long as you say why.

Reference, California 2026 to 27 school year Community college runs about $46 a unit, roughly $1,400 a year in tuition plus a few hundred in fees. CSU systemwide tuition is about $6,840 a year after this year's 6 percent increase, plus campus fees that usually land between $1,500 and $3,000. UC tuition and fees run about $15,500 to $16,000 a year. Private universities vary widely, often $40,000 and up. None of these include housing or books. Check your campus page before you trust a range.

How the loan math works

Federal Direct Loans for undergraduates first paid out between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027 carry a fixed 6.52 percent rate (Federal Student Aid). On the standard ten year plan that works out to about $11.36 a month for every $1,000 borrowed. Graduate loans run 8.07 percent. The Loan Simulator at studentaid.gov will show you the same payment and the other repayment plans.

Part 3

A real month, for each career

Each row starts with the real figure for one adult in the place you picked: rent from HUD, food, transportation, health care, and everyday costs from the Economic Policy Institute. Those are bare bones budgets, the cost of a modest month with nothing extra. Your job is to make each column your life.

Do this: pick your housing and health situation for each column. Read each number and ask, is that me? If it isn't, type your number and say why in a line. Then fill the last row, the life part, yourself. Where your two columns differ, that's where the comparison lives. If a row really is the same for both, that's fine too.

Part 4

What's actually left

Two numbers per career. What's left after the month's bills, and what's left once the loan payment comes out too. Then your gut guess from the Start, next to the real figure.

Your read, now that you've seen it

Career 1

After the math: what's really left each month?

$500

Career 2

After the math: what's really left each month?

$500

What moved your number, in one or two lines? Point at a row. "Rent took more than I pictured" is a real answer. "The loan on Career 2 ate the salary difference" is a better one.

Part 5

Your analysis

The numbers are the setup. This is the assignment. Four short parts, each a few sentences, in your own words. Point at specific numbers from above. You're graded on reasoning you can defend, not on which career wins.

1. Which one is in the stronger financial position at entry level, and what numbers say so? Cite at least two figures from above, like both take home numbers, both what's left figures, or a take home and a loan payment. If they're close, say that and say what would tip it. 2. Where's the biggest difference between the two, and why does it exist? The tool names the widest row above. Agree or disagree with it, and explain the cause: salary, the loan, benefits, or where you'd live. 3. Which number challenged or confirmed what you expected? Name one specific figure. Maybe it was higher or lower than you pictured, a column looked weaker on salary and stronger after rent or the loan, or your gut guess landed right on it. Then say what it means for your decision. A number that backs up what you already thought counts, as long as you say why it matters. 4. Hold this up against your top three values from the Values Lab. Does the money picture serve them, fight them, or not touch them? Name the values. Then say which money picture fits them better, and tie that judgment to at least one figure from above: a take home, a what's left, a loan payment, or a budget row. Money raises your floor. Alignment raises your ceiling.

Value 1

Value 2

Value 3

Build it, copy it, turn it in

Build checks that every part is done and writes the whole comparison as plain text: both take home figures, the loan math, every budget row side by side, what's left, your gut guess next to the real number, and your four written parts.

Do this, in order: 1. Press Build my comparison. 2. Read it once. 3. Press Copy. 4. Paste into the Career Financial Comparison box under this tool in Canvas and press Submit. Then check Grades for a dash. That one paste is the whole submission. The last line should read END OF MY CAREER FINANCIAL COMPARISON. If it doesn't, the paste got cut off. Copy straight from this tool into Canvas, not through another app first, or the dollar signs can disappear.

Need a clean slate? This erases this tool's answers in your account.

Moving my work another way (a code instead of a file)

The Download progress file button above is the easy way. If a file is awkward on your device, press Export, copy the code, then paste it into this box on the other device and press Restore.

Build your text and copy it out before you close the tab. Don't trust this tool with the only copy. Sources: salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Rent from HUD Fair Market Rents, fiscal year 2026 (revised), for every county in the country. Food, transportation, health care, and everyday costs from the Economic Policy Institute Family Budget Calculator, 2026 edition, one adult. Employer health premium share from the KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey. Taxes from IRS 2026 tables, California FTB 2025 tables and the EDD 2026 SDI rate, the Tax Foundation's 2026 state income tax table and its average local income tax rates, and New York City's resident tax rates. Program borrowing from College Scorecard (June 2026 release) matched to jobs with the NCES program to occupation crosswalk. Loans from Federal Student Aid 2026 to 27 rates. Figures are starting points, not your numbers.