Compensation Planner

Features#

• Three value lenses: economic value, taxable income, and realized cash flow
• Configurable equity-price growth assumptions
• Option exercise planning with tax impact
• RSU, ISO, and NSO vesting schedule projection
• Side-by-side comparison across salary, equity, and bonus components

When to use this tool#

Use Compensation Planner to compare offers or project pay and equity through vesting. Set stock-price growth as an assumption, then compare the results.

Compensation components#

• Base salary: annual gross salary with a configurable annual raise percentage. Salary compounds each year.
• RSU grants: restricted stock units with vesting schedules. Supports standard 4-year (25/25/25/25), backloaded (5/15/40/40), front-loaded (40/30/20/10), and fully custom per-year percentages. Each grant has its own cliff period, vesting frequency, and grant date.
• Stock options (ISO/NSO): incentive and non-qualified stock options with strike price, vesting schedule, and user-defined exercise plan. You specify exercise events at month granularity, and the planner validates them against vested shares.
• Bonuses: signing (one-time), annual (recurring), and retention bonuses. Enter each as a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of base salary.
• 401(k) match: employer match modeled as a percentage of your contribution up to a cap. This is the employer match only, not the elective deferral limit.
• ESPP: Employee Stock Purchase Plan with configurable discount, contribution rate, purchase frequency, and share-price growth. Modeled as same-day sale (disqualifying disposition), where the discount gain is ordinary income.

Three value lenses#

View the same compensation in three ways:

• Economic value: what each component is worth at vest or receipt. RSU value = shares × price at vest. Option value = intrinsic value of vesting shares. 401(k) match = employer dollars. This is the broadest view of total compensation.
• Taxable income: modeled annual tax items. RSU vesting = ordinary income. ISO exercises = AMT preference only (not regular taxable). NSO exercises = ordinary income on the spread. 401(k) match = excluded. ESPP gain is ordinary income.
• Realized cash flow: estimated dollars after payroll withholding. Per-component bars show withholding estimates. The tax overlay updates annual and cumulative totals with the backend's tax estimates.

Component comparison#

The comparison table leads the results. It shows each component of each offer for one period: Year 1 or Whole projection. Year 1 is the first 12 months from the start date. A vest on the first anniversary of the start date falls in year 2.

The figures are pre-tax. The help on Vesting equity names what it counts. The table keeps your period while a new run computes.

• Base salary and Bonuses: the scheduled amounts in the period. Signing, annual, and retention bonuses all count.
• Vesting equity: the RSU value at each vest plus the option spread over strike at each vest. Both use the modeled share price at the vest month.
• 401(k) match and ESPP discount gain: these rows show when an offer has them.
• Total modeled compensation: the pre-tax economic value of the period. The engine returns each figure, the total included.

Option exercise plan#

Options vest on a schedule, but exercising them can create a tax event. Add exercise months for each grant. The list shows their calendar dates from the projection start.

• Validation: through each month, cumulative exercised shares cannot exceed cumulative vested shares at that month. You cannot exercise unvested shares.
• Exercise pricing: the stock price at the exercise month uses the grant's configured compound annual growth rate, not a midpoint or year-level average.
• ISO vs NSO: ISO exercises appear as AMT preference items only (no regular taxable income). NSO exercises appear as ordinary income on the spread. The economic view shows intrinsic value at vest for both types.

Vesting schedules#

Four vesting presets are available, plus fully custom:

• Standard 4-year (25/25/25/25): equal vesting each year.
• Backloaded 4-year (5/15/40/40): most shares vest in years 3 and 4.
• Front-loaded 4-year (40/30/20/10): most shares vest early.
• Custom: specify per-year percentages (must sum to 100%). Add or remove years as needed. Within each year, the planner spreads shares evenly across vesting-frequency intervals.

Tax overlay#

Toggle “Show tax estimate” to request federal and state tax estimates for each projection year. The overlay uses the same AMT engine as the AMT Calculator.

• Tax years and deductions: each row uses its calendar tax year for federal AMT, state, and FICA constants. The overlay fails when the projection exceeds the statutory tables. It does not reuse an older law year. It can apply the standard deduction or itemized deductions.
• Outside income: open Other income and deductions to add ordinary income, short-term gains, and long-term gains or qualified dividends outside the modeled offer.
• State tax approximation: for Head of Household and Married Filing Separately, state tax uses Single filing status as an approximation.
• FICA: the planner computes Social Security (6.2% up to the wage base) and Medicare (1.45%) separately from the AMT engine. The cash-flow estimate projects future Social Security wage bases, but the overlay does not use that projection as a statutory tax table.

Charts#

• Annual compensation breakdown: stacked bar chart showing each component per year. Values change with the active value lens. When you enable the tax overlay, a line trace shows total tax per year.
• Cumulative total compensation: running sum over the projection period for the selected value lens.
• Equity vesting & exercise timeline: monthly bar chart showing when shares vest, color-coded by grant. Exercise events appear as diamond markers. Dashed vertical lines mark cliff dates.