The switch decision

This is the narrow leave-the-seat screen from Chapter 9. Most second engines do not require leaving your current job. If you're weighing a leap anyway, this walks the gates and the two ledgers: whether the move earns, and whether you'd survive the crossing. Everything runs in pay before tax except where cash is spent.

For education and entertainment only. This screen cannot know your contract, your taxes, or your market. A real decision gets made with a lawyer, a CPA, and a fiduciary financial advisor in the room, not a web page.

The calculator does not save your entries.

0 capacity check

Can you survive the venture failing?

Before any math: could your household cover 12 months at zero income from the new venture, if it never ramped?

Not yet. Start it on the side while keeping your job until you could cover a full year with no income from the new venture. The screen will not rate a plan you could not survive.

1 is this a real leap

Route out the mis-filed cases

A leap is a deliberate, unforced choice. If one of these fits better, handle it first.

Triage, not a leap. Stabilize first, then come back.

Negotiate first. Bring your own numbers before you leave.

Start it on the side. You can build the income without leaving your job.

2 why now

What is pushing, what is pulling

What is mostly driving this?

Burnout or control usually has cheaper fixes: renegotiate call, part-time, change employer inside the W-2. Price those first.

Would you make this move at equal pay?

3 the new path

How would you leave

Each of the first three typically shifts you to owner-side payroll — the details vary by entity (S corporation, partnership, 1099), which is CPA territory; the screen uses an editable estimate. If nothing is validated yet, say so — that is a real answer.

4 deal-breakers

Can this even work

Any one of these that fails takes the move off the table until you fix it.

5 fit

How well it suits you

6 the numbers

Run your own numbers

Pay before tax on both sides so the comparison is fair; your tax rate is used where real cash gets spent and to bracket the break-even. Amber tags mark estimates. Decision-driving fields start blank and stay required: blank means unknown, and unknown is not zero. If a cost truly is zero for you, type 0.

Current job: yearly pay before tax salary + productivity/RVU + call + reliable bonuses

Current job: yearly benefits value employer match + employer-paid premiums

New path: yearly pay once established estimatewhat you would actually take out, including what funds your own benefits; after business expenses, before personal tax

Own insurance premiums during the crossing estimatehealth and disability you must pay yourself while building, /yr — cash cost only; retirement savings are still yours, not a cost

Owner-side payroll cost override blank = auto estimate; entity structure changes this — ask a CPA

Months to reach full income estimate

Average yearly pay while building up estimateafter business expenses, owner payroll, and required premiums; before personal tax

Sunk transition costs estimatemalpractice tail, legal, moving, credentialing — money that is simply gone

Capital invested estimatebuy-in, equity, equipment, buildout — money that buys something

Recoverable share of that capital, % what a bad exit would return; be pessimistic — 0 until proven otherwise

Non-compete buyout, if any used only when you buy your way out

Cash savings you can spend savings and cash on hand; not income, not credit

Committed financing available signed terms only — a term sheet, a line of credit. No document, no dollars.

Your yearly living costs household spending; 0 if build-up take-home covers it

Second income during the gap spouse/partner take-home covering household costs

Return your savings give up, % per year what drawn-down savings would have earned

Loan interest rate, % per year for any financing drawn. If loan interest is already inside your new-path pay estimate, set this to 0 so it is not counted twice.

Your age

Age you plan to retire

Your effective tax rate, % needed for the cash-survival test when living costs are entered

Downside case for the new-path estimate the estimate gets the same discipline as your current pay: pick an anchor

How solid is your current pay? use a documentable fact, not a bad mood. No document, no discount.

Non-compete enforceability is state-specific; verify with a lawyer

If you wait it out or move instead of buying out, put that lost time and lower income into the build-up months and pay, not the buyout box.

How will you cover the gap?

7 the crossing

When the new path catches up

The shaded region is time spent behind — the stretch where staying would have you ahead. It is a duration, not a dollar amount. The chart and its marker run in pre-tax dollars; the verdict uses the more conservative after-tax break-even shown in the dock. The dotted line is your estimate before the downside anchor.

new path (after downside anchor and owner costs) your estimate, no downside anchor staying (risk-adjusted) time spent behind

Companion to The Income Variable, Chapter 9. For education and entertainment; not financial, legal, or tax advice. The calculator does not save your entries.

Answer above

Break-even

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Economic cost

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Extra pay/yr

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Cash need

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Fit

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Work down the steps. The screen updates live.

Based only on the assumptions entered. A screen for curiosity and further diligence, not a recommendation to leave — for entertainment; real decisions involve a lawyer, a CPA, and a fiduciary financial advisor.