Methodology.

The calculator does two things with numbers. The first set comes entirely from you: your fixed costs, your savings, the bridge income you could realistically earn. Those drive your burn and your runway, and they stay in your browser. The second set is ours: a per-path estimate of how long it typically takes to land the role and what it tends to pay. This page is about that second set, because you should know where it comes from before you trust it.

Where the path numbers come from

They come from our researched paths dataset, where every figure is either sourced to a citation or explicitly flagged as our estimate with its reasoning attached. Pay bands are drawn from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) wherever the role has a federal occupation code, and from job-posting aggregates where it does not, in which case we say so next to the number. Nothing unsourced ships: a figure without a citation or a stated basis cannot be added to the dataset at all. Two values define each path here:

• Time to first paycheck. The typical stretch from “I commit to this path” to the first paycheck in the new role. It folds in the job search, hiring, and the early ramp, not just the day you accept an offer. These are our estimates rather than sourced figures, because no authoritative time-to-hire dataset exists for these roles, and each one carries the reasoning behind it.
• Expected monthly income. A gross, pre-tax monthly range once you're established in the role — the kind of figure a job listing quotes. The underlying band is annual, which is how wage surveys publish it; we divide by twelve so the math stays in one unit of time, and we show you the monthly figure because your rent is monthly.

Gross or take-home: which we ask for, and why it differs

The calculator asks for two kinds of money, and deliberately asks for them in two different units. It is worth a minute of your time, because entering the wrong one in the wrong place will skew your reading.

• Your current pay — gross, before taxes. This number is only ever used for one thing: comparing what you earn now against what a role tends to pay. Since role pay is quoted gross (that is how jobs are advertised, and how BLS and Glassdoor report), your pay has to be gross too. Comparing a gross salary against a take-home one is subtracting two different units, and it makes every pay cut look smaller than it really is.
• Costs, savings, and bridge income — take-home. These drive your burn and your runway, which are questions about money that actually has to cover rent. Rent is not paid in pre-tax dollars, so these are all what really lands in your account.

We do not convert between the two, because doing so honestly would mean assuming an effective tax rate for you — which depends on your state, your filing status, and your deductions. We would rather ask you for the right number than invent one.

How fast each path tends to move

Roughly, the paths fall into three speed bands by time to first paycheck: the fastest lateral moves at 1 to 2 months, the more competitive ones at 3 to 4 months, and the slower or portfolio-built ones at 6 months and up, with an independent practice longest of all because starting a business is not changing jobs. Here is every path in the tool, rendered straight from the dataset:

What these numbers are not

Path pay ranges and timelines are estimates for planning only, not guarantees. Your numbers will vary by location, experience, and market.

This is a planning tool, not financial advice, and these estimates are not promises about your specific situation. Your location, your experience, the local job market, and plain luck will move them. Treat them as a starting point for a conversation with yourself about whether the math works, not as a quote.

We refined these with harder data (BLS wage and employment figures, O*NET, and market aggregates where no federal code exists), and we keep refining them as the sources update. When we change a number, we change it in one place, the paths dataset, and this page reads from that same place, so the two can never disagree.