Quick answer
Use this calculator to compare up to three job offers with equity compensation over a 3-7 year horizon. Model base cash, bonus, RSU grants, stock options, tender windows, donation matching, and exit assumptions so you can see net-of-tax take-home side by side instead of relying on a headline total compensation number.
How to use this calculator
This model compares offers the way a rational long-horizon decision should: year-by-year cash flow, tax-aware equity value, and terminal net worth under explicit assumptions. The headline "total comp" number most recruiters quote hides vesting, double-trigger rules, dilution, illiquidity, and taxes. This tool exposes all of them.
The best workflow is to enter all three offers at once, pick a time horizon that matches your real commitment window, then iterate on the high-impact assumptions until the ranking stabilizes.
1. Set the global planning window
Choose a horizon between 3 and 7 years. Four years is the default because it matches typical new-grant vesting cliffs. Extend to 5-7 years if you expect one of the offers to IPO or be acquired inside that window. A shorter horizon usually favors cash-heavy offers; a longer horizon usually favors equity-heavy offers if the company executes.
2. Configure tax treatment once globally
Pick a state or high-tax-city preset, pick your filing status, and the model applies those rates uniformly across every offer. If none of the presets match, switch to custom and set ordinary, long-term capital gains, ISO state and city, AMT, and effective cash rates directly. Presets are designed to match typical combined federal, state, and local burdens for common high-comp locations.
3. Add base pay, sign-on, and bonus targets
Enter base salary, any signing bonus (with optional clawback window), and annual target bonus as a percent of base. Add 401(k) employer match and HSA contributions if they differ meaningfully across offers. These land in cash flow after the effective cash tax rate.
4. Layer in equity grants by type
For each offer, enable RSU, option, and liquidity sections as needed. Enter grant dollar value, vesting cliff, and vest frequency. RSUs can be marked double-trigger if the company is private — the model withholds vested-but-unreleased shares until liquidity, then revalues the backlog at IPO-year FMV as W-2 income. Options take strike price, ISO/NSO mix, and optional early-exercise with 83(b) for QSBS eligibility.
5. Add exit assumptions
Pick liquidity type: public, IPO, tender window, or none. Enter per-year FMV. The model scales equity by the FMV trajectory and applies short- versus long-term capital gains treatment based on each vested lot's holding period.
6. Use the Advanced accordion for second-order effects
Retention grants, refresh grants, dilution, donation matching, and existing equity from prior jobs all live here. Toggle them on only for offers where they meaningfully move the answer.
7. Compare across the five result tabs
- *Projections*: year-by-year net worth and cumulative cash for each offer.
- *Annual Detail*: per-year breakdown of base, bonus, vested RSU, option gains, and tax.
- *Breakeven*: sweep the exit valuation up and down to find where offer rankings flip.
- *Sensitivity*: bear, base, and bull cases so you see downside risk, not just point estimates.
- *Assumptions*: full list of the tax rates, horizon, and NPV settings applied.
High-impact assumptions
These inputs move the ranking more than anything else. Spend most of your iteration time here.
Exit valuation trajectory
For private companies, the per-year FMV path dominates the outcome. A flat path favors cash-heavy offers; a steep up-and-to-the-right path favors equity-heavy offers. Run at least three trajectories per offer: a flat case where the company goes sideways, a modest 1.5x to 2x case, and an optimistic 4x to 6x case. Public offers are far less sensitive because the strike-to-FMV spread is small and liquidity is immediate.
Double-trigger RSU treatment
Private-company RSUs typically vest against a time trigger but do not actually release shares or trigger tax until a liquidity event. When that event finally happens, the entire vested-but-unreleased backlog is revalued at then-current FMV and taxed as W-2 ordinary income. This can generate a six- or seven-figure tax bill in a single year. Model it correctly or you will systematically overvalue pre-IPO RSU grants by 30-40% after tax.
ISO versus NSO mix and AMT
Incentive stock options (ISOs) qualify for long-term capital gains treatment if held 1 year from exercise and 2 years from grant, but the bargain element at exercise is an AMT preference item. Non-qualified options (NSOs) generate ordinary income at exercise regardless of hold period. A cashless exercise through a tender is usually the easier choice because it converts the spread to cash without triggering ongoing AMT risk, at the cost of forfeiting LTCG treatment on the portion exercised.
QSBS section 1202 eligibility
If the company qualifies as a Qualified Small Business at the time your shares were acquired and you hold for 5 years, federal capital gains on the first $10 million of gain are exempt. This requires early exercise plus 83(b) election at grant for options, so the clock starts running before the company has appreciated meaningfully. Missing QSBS through late exercise can cost 20-30% of total realized gain on a successful exit.
Effective cash tax rate
The model applies a single effective rate to base, bonus, and NSO ordinary-income events. High-tax locations like NYC-single at roughly 38% combined will materially reduce cash-heavy offers. Before anchoring on any ranking, confirm that the preset you picked matches your actual filing reality: state, city, filing status, and other-income context (spouse W-2, dividends, self-employment) all affect marginal rates.
Dilution on pre-IPO shares
Your grant is sized against today's fully diluted share count. If the company raises more capital or issues founder awards, your percent ownership falls. Model 15-30% dilution for late-stage private companies and 30-50% for early-stage. Zero dilution is the most common way to overvalue a private equity package.
Common mistakes to avoid
These errors show up repeatedly when people evaluate comp offers without a structured model.
1. Comparing headline total compensation directly
A "$600k TC" offer at a private company and a "$600k TC" offer at a public company are not the same number. The private number is usually quoted against current internal valuation and assumes no dilution, no double-trigger drag, and no tax. The public number is liquid and taxable immediately. Compare after-tax, after-liquidity net worth at a fixed horizon, not headline numbers.
2. Ignoring the opportunity cost of early exercise
Early exercising options to start the QSBS and LTCG clocks requires writing a real check, often six figures, into shares that may be worth zero. The calculator lets you model this by entering the cash outlay explicitly. If the company fails, that check is gone. A reasonable sanity check is never exercising more than 10-20% of liquid net worth into pre-IPO shares unless you genuinely treat that capital as lost.
3. Treating tender windows as guaranteed liquidity
Companies offer tenders opportunistically, not predictably. The calculator models them as available in the year you specify, but in reality tenders are capped, may require specific holding periods, and can be canceled. Use a tender assumption as a scenario, not a plan. Offers that depend on tender for any meaningful liquidity should be discounted relative to offers with a clear path to IPO or acquisition.
4. Using the same valuation trajectory across all private offers
Every private company has its own growth curve, and applying a single multiple across offers ignores material differences in product-market fit, growth rate, and competitive position. If you are not confident enough to assign distinct trajectories, that itself is evidence that the cash-weighted comparison deserves more weight.
5. Over-weighting the terminal net worth number
The calculator surfaces a year-by-year path on purpose. An offer that ranks first at year 7 but last at year 3 exposes you to substantial illiquidity and concentration risk. If your honest commitment window is three years, weight the three-year number more heavily than the terminal number, even if the terminal spread looks attractive.
6. Forgetting to apply NPV discounting for longer horizons
Five or seven years of projected equity value should not be compared dollar-for-dollar against today's cash bonus. Enable the NPV toggle and pick a discount rate that reflects your personal cost of capital or investment opportunity cost. A 6-8% real rate is a common choice; higher rates penalize long-dated equity more aggressively.
Decision framework playbook
Use these heuristic weightings to calibrate the output against your actual life situation.
If your financial runway is short
Weight base salary and signing bonus heavily. Set the horizon to 3 years. Apply a conservative exit valuation path. The offer with the highest after-tax cash cumulative at year 3 usually wins.
If your horizon conviction is long
Weight equity grants more heavily. Set horizon to 5-7 years. Model at least one aggressive exit case. Consider early exercise with QSBS if the company qualifies, and confirm the terminal spread is large enough to justify the illiquidity risk.
If offers span public and private companies
Apply NPV discounting. Apply realistic dilution. Lower the private offer's exit valuation trajectory to reflect illiquidity. If the two offers are close after those adjustments, the public offer usually wins on a risk-adjusted basis.
What this calculator does and does not model
Use the tool for what it is strong at.
Strong at
- Side-by-side net worth paths for up to three offers over 3-7 years.
- Tax-aware treatment of RSU, NSO, ISO, cashless tender, and QSBS scenarios.
- Sensitivity and breakeven sweeps so rankings reflect assumption uncertainty.
- Transparent assumption surfacing so recruiters and hiring managers cannot easily obscure tradeoffs.
Not designed for
- Country-specific tax regimes outside the U.S. federal plus state preset set.
- Quarterly vest granularity — the model uses annual vest tranches.
- Replacing a CPA review for material equity decisions. QSBS, AMT, and 83(b) elections have filing deadlines and documentation requirements that belong with a qualified tax professional.
- Personalized investment allocation across the diversified net proceeds.
For downstream planning once you have picked an offer, use the paired FIRE Calculator, Paycheck Calculator, and Budget Planner to turn accepted compensation into a sustainable plan.
Frequently asked questions
How should I set the exit valuation for a private company?
Use a three-case approach: a flat case, a modest multiple case (1.5x to 2x current FMV), and an optimistic case (4x to 6x). Do not rely on the company's own pitch number. Cross-check against secondary market pricing if available and against public comparables at similar revenue scale. The spread across these cases is usually wider than the spread across offers, which is the point of the sensitivity view.
What discount rate should I use for NPV?
A real discount rate between 5% and 10% is a reasonable range. The lower end reflects a conservative long-run equity return assumption; the higher end reflects your personal opportunity cost if you have other high-return uses for capital, such as paying off high-interest debt or funding a business. Run two rates if you are uncertain and see how the ranking changes.
What if I cannot early-exercise to capture QSBS?
Then run the model without QSBS enabled and accept that the ISO path gets taxed at long-term capital gains rates only on the held portion after exercise, plus ordinary-income AMT preference treatment on the spread at exercise. The loss versus a successful QSBS path is typically 15-25% of terminal proceeds on a big exit. Do not miss QSBS if you can afford the exercise check and you believe in the company.
How does the model handle acquisitions instead of IPOs?
Set liquidity type to IPO and use the acquisition-year FMV. The mechanics are identical: double-trigger RSU backlog revalues at that FMV as W-2 income, options convert to acquirer stock or cash at deal price, and the 5-year QSBS clock either completes before deal close or is reset by the acquirer. If you expect a near-term acquisition, shorten the horizon to match.
Is the share URL safe to send in email?
Yes. All state is encoded client-side into a base64 query parameter and never touches any server. The URL is indexed as disallowed in robots.txt, so shared links do not appear in search. You can send a comparison to a partner, advisor, or CPA without exposing any account or PII information.
Educational use note
This content is educational and planning-oriented. It is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Equity compensation decisions involve AMT, QSBS, 83(b) elections, and state-specific rules with hard filing deadlines. Use conservative assumptions, compare multiple scenarios, and consult qualified tax and legal professionals before committing to an early exercise or acceptance decision.