Salary Calculators and Wizards

Link to financial and salary calculators and wizards below. Includes city cost of living comparison and relocation; IRA, 401(k) and retirement planning; paycheck annual salary, and hourly and gross pay; potential future salary; W-4 Form allowances and income tax; loan, mortgage and amortization; investment and savings; and other financial and salary calculators.

Many free salary calculators and wizards are little more than gimmicks to attract Web site traffic. Before you take the results of a free salary calculator or wizard seriously, read about the methodology used to collect the data.

The most reliable data is collected scientifically from employers or data-collection organizations, at least once per year.

If the methodology is not offered or seems unscientific (e.g., collected randomly from volunteer job seekers), then don't take the results too seriously.

WorldatWork, a nonprofit professional association, sets the standards for collecting salary data. So, any salary calculator or wizard that adheres to its standards is likely more reliable than one that doesn't. See also Salary Surveys.

401(k) Calculator
Play with the numbers to see how your salary and taxes will be affected by contributing to a 401(k) retirement account. Also includes calculators for retirement planning, net worth, college financial planning, investing and taxes.

Accounting and Finance Salary Calculator
Robert Half International provides a free calculator for looking up a salary range by zip code, job category and title. Also provides a salary guide that's only sort of free, as you must first complete a nosey registration form to enable downloading. Check the Privacy Policy to discover how they'll use your personal info.

Calculators Aplenty
A large variety of calculators regarding salary and other money matters from Bankrate.com, too numerous to list here. However, at this writing the calculator categories are: mortgage, home equity, taxes, auto, savings, investments, debt management, personal finance, retirement, insurance, credit cards, and small business.

Career Salaries - Salary Potential by Job
How much will you be earning in fifteen years? As a promotion for their products and services, the Economic Research Institute lets you peek into their crystal ball. For the U.S. and Canada.

City Cost of Living Comparison
Learn how your disposable income will be affected by relocating to another U.S. city. The Cost of Living Wizard also reports the salary adjustment you need to maintain your standard of living, and how likely you are to receive it in the local market. A freebie from Salary.com as a promo for paid services.

Financial Calculators
An ever-evolving variety of calculators, wizards and similar tools, organized under categories such as Real Estate, Retirement, Planning, and Investing. Courtesy of CNNMoney.

IRA Calculator
Quickly discover how much of your annual salary you're eligible to contribute to a Roth and/or traditional individual retirement account (IRA). Just one of several calculators and planning tools from Fidelity.

Loan Calculator Download
As promo for software that costs, this is free, fully-operational, loan-analysis software for noncommercial use. Includes remaining balance, balloon payment, accelerated payment, interest due, amortization, and refinance loan calculators. Requires the Windows operating system.

Loan Calculators
Several each for mortgage, home equity, auto, credit card and debt consolidation loans from Lending Tree.

Salary and Paycheck Calculators
Basic salary, hourly-pay and W-4 calculators for figuring your take-home pay. Advanced wizards and calculators require registration, which is free at this writing but rather nosy (e.g., requires phone number).

Salary Calculator
Get a free broad-range salary report online, including benefit, bonus and cost-of-living information. Provided by SalaryExpert.com as a promo for a personal report that costs. (Tip: Enter your last employer if you are currently unemployed.) Also provides other salary-related calculators, such as for executive salaries.

Salary Calculator - Medical and Health Care
Compare your salary to those of your peers, by professional field and job specialty. Provided by Advance for Health Careers Magazine, which requires you to submit some personal information. However, they promise anonymity and privacy.

Salary Wizard
Get a rough idea of what jobs like yours pay where you live and work. Free from Salary.com as a promo for personal salary reports.

Tax Calculators
Estimate your tax or refund, see how a major life change (e.g., marriage, birth or home purchase) will impact your taxes, and figure out how much you may contribute to an IRA while saving on taxes. From Intuit, maker of TurboTax®.

Tax Calculators and Tools
H&R Block offers free online calculators and interactive tools for estimating your Federal tax or refund, and for figuring self-employment tax, a health insurance tax credit (per the Affordable Care Act), and the tax impact of a major life change or job-related deductions.