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Methodology

Relocation Moving Cost Payback Calculator methodology

Test whether an entered compensation and cost change can recover moving costs over a chosen horizon.
Duc Nguyen X.By Duc Nguyen X.· Founder, Wage101Last reviewed: View update historyMethodology

Educational only: Work and pay decision support, not tax, legal, financial or career advice.

Privacy: Calculations run locally; Wage101 does not receive your work or pay inputs.

Update policy: Reviewed when formulas or official dependencies change.

Scope: Market-neutral work and pay planning using your own assumptions.

1. Formulas and units

Horizon net gain
horizonNetGain = monthlyGain × horizonMonths − unreimbursedCost

Where

horizonMonths
Comparison horizon (months)Source: User assumption
horizonNetGain
Net gain over horizon (currency units)Source: Calculated output
monthlyGain
Monthly recurring gain (currency units/month)Source: Calculated output
unreimbursedCost
Unreimbursed one-time cost (currency units)Source: Calculated output
Annual recurring gain
annualGain = newAnnualCompensation − currentAnnualCompensation − (newAnnualRecurringCosts − currentAnnualRecurringCosts)

Where

currentAnnualCompensation
Current annual compensation (currency units/year)Source: User assumption
newAnnualCompensation
New annual compensation (currency units/year)Source: User assumption
currentAnnualRecurringCosts
Current recurring costs (currency units/year)Source: User assumption
newAnnualRecurringCosts
New recurring costs (currency units/year)Source: User assumption
annualGain
Annual recurring gain (currency units/year)Source: Calculated output
Monthly recurring gain
monthlyGain = annualGain ÷ 12

Where

annualGain
Annual recurring gain (currency units/year)Source: Calculated output
monthlyGain
Monthly recurring gain (currency units/month)Source: Calculated output
Unreimbursed cost
unreimbursedCost = movingCosts + otherOneTimeCosts − employerContribution

Where

movingCosts
Moving costs (currency units)Source: User assumption
otherOneTimeCosts
Other one-time costs (currency units)Source: User assumption
employerContribution
Employer contribution (currency units)Source: User assumption
unreimbursedCost
Unreimbursed one-time cost (currency units)Source: Calculated output

Money inputs and outputs use the currency selected in the scenario without changing the canonical methodology. Pay, time, benefits and work-related costs use the units stated beside each input.

2. Worked example

Input assumptions

Compare 60,000 with 72,000 compensation, 3,000 extra annual costs and 6,000 unreimbursed moving costs over 24 months.

Calculation and outputs

Example

Compare 60,000 with 72,000 compensation, 3,000 extra annual costs and 6,000 unreimbursed moving costs over 24 months.

Net gain over horizon
12,000.00 currency units
Annual recurring gain
9,000.00 currency units
Monthly recurring gain
750.00 currency units
Unreimbursed one-time cost
6,000.00 currency units

Recurring gain, unreimbursed cost and horizon outcome remain separate.

Interpretation

Keep recurring gain and unreimbursed cost visible beside the horizon result.

3. Validation and boundary checks

  • Horizon is a whole number from 1 to 600 months.
  • Employer contribution cannot exceed entered one-time costs.
  • All money inputs are finite and non-negative.

4. Assumptions and source classification

  • Compensation and recurring costs stay constant over the entered horizon.
  • Employer contribution is applied only to entered one-time costs.
  • All figures use one currency basis.

This calculator has no current policy-data dependency. Its work and pay assumptions are user supplied. Registered family-level regression suites exercise the shared work-logic engine and worked-result reconciliation.

5. Limitations

  • No tax, inflation, cost-of-living dataset or local relocation rule is applied.
  • A negative or zero recurring gain may never recover one-time costs.
  • The numeric cards omit the engine payback status when no finite payback exists.

This is educational decision support, not personalised tax, legal, financial or career advice. Check the treatment of your circumstances under the rules that apply to you and seek qualified advice where appropriate.

6. Update and evidence policy

Registered family-level suites test formula invariants and example reconciliation; the release ledger records that coverage without claiming a separate oracle for every line of public copy. There is no official threshold or benchmark to refresh for this calculator. Work and pay inputs remain user-supplied because they vary by person, job and contract.

Change history

  1. : Initial public release of the Relocation Moving Cost Payback planner and methodology.

Related reading

Use these practical guides to interpret the decision and its assumptions.

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