Nothing here is stored. Close the tab and the numbers are gone.
First, the only question that changes the arithmetic
Is tax taken out before the money reaches you?
We don't ask what you do for a living. Whether somebody already took the tax
out is the only fact that changes the maths.
How is your business taxed?
Same revenue. Different computations. Which one applies to you
is on your return. Which one should is a structural decision, and a calculator does not
make those.
The Four Shares
Four claims on one pot, in an order the code sets. The household's share is fourth, and that is
not an opinion.
Do what an employer does, in the order the code does it. For someone on a
payroll that order is performed for them. For everyone else nobody performs it, and almost
everybody runs it backwards — household first, government last, in April.
§ 162(a) — ordinary and necessary. An expense that fails
either word is a household share wearing a receipt. What's left is Schedule C line 31, and
line 31 is the only number that matters from here on.
§ 1401, § 1402(a)(12) and § 6654. Not negotiable and not
deferrable — it has a due date four times a year. Form 1040-ES is the government's own
worksheet for it, and it starts from line 31.
§ 401 and § 408. This one comes out before the household
share, because a contribution made from what's left over is a contribution that doesn't
happen. § 415(c) and § 402(g) cap it — by provision, never by the figure here,
because the dollar limit changes most years and this screen would go stale printing it.
This is the only share that pays for part of itself — and its
limit is a different statute from its size. § 4975 restricts what a retirement
account can be used for once the money is in it — a rule about self-dealing and prohibited
transactions, not about how much you contribute. A contribution can be within every dollar limit
above and still land somewhere § 4975 doesn't allow. That is a separate question from this
screen, and this screen does not answer it.
And this share reduces the one above it. A deductible
contribution lowers the number § 1401 and § 6654 compute from. It is the only share
that pays for part of itself — which is why it sits third and not last.
Your household share
Take-home, not gross. The gap is withholding, FICA and state tax, and your
own return itemises all three.
Two of your four shares are already on the stub in front of you — you don't
compute them, you read them.
The government's share. Look for the withholding
lines above “net pay” — usually labeled Federal Tax (or Fed
W/H), Social Security (or OASDI), and Medicare, plus state tax
if your state has one. Add those together and that's Share ①, already set aside for you.
On the year-end W-2 version of the same document, they're Box 2 (federal income tax withheld),
Box 4 (Social Security tax withheld) and Box 6 (Medicare tax withheld).
The future's share. If you contribute to a workplace plan,
look for a line labeled 401(k), 403(b), or just Retirement —
it's usually subtracted before tax is even calculated, which is why your
“taxable wages” on the stub are often lower than your gross pay. On a W-2, this is
one of the Box 12 codes (D, E, AA and a few others, depending on the plan type). If that line
reads zero, Share ② isn't missing from the math — it's genuinely zero, and that's
worth noticing on its own.
Housing, utilities, groceries, transport, insurance, and the
minimum debt payments. The minimum is a need. The full payment is not.
Part of needs, not on top of it. Naming it separately
is what lets the result tell a fixed-cost problem from a spending
one.
Anything you'd still be alive without.
There is no field for the last bucket. You don't choose it
— it's what survives. That is the whole point of the shape.
The result
Set a savings goal
Out of what survives — your last bucket, computed
above, never a separate entry.
The debt order
Your last bucket is what is left after the first three. The rule says
put it here and stops.
It says nothing about what to do inside it — and a twenty-four
percent balance and a savings account are both “the twenty.”
The framework has no concept of interest rate.
Your report shows what you owe. It does not
show what it costs. Balance, credit limit, high credit and
payment status are on the report. The interest rate usually is not
— that number is on your statement, and it is the one that
decides the order.
Optional. Your findings screen shows
this number.
This is what actually moves a payoff date. Zero is a
real, honest answer — the two methods will still show, just slower.