Fig. Working Figures

Calculators

Break-even rate calculator

This is not the rate to charge; it is the rate below which working loses money. Knowing it changes negotiations: everything above it is a choice, everything below it is a subsidy you are paying the client.

Your numbers
$

Rent, food, insurance, minimums. The survival figure, not the comfortable one.

$

Software, insurance, accounting, subscriptions. Deductible, so counted pre-tax.

%

Federal + state + SE combined. The set-aside calculator computes yours; 25-35% is typical.

Realistic monthly billable capacity. Around 100 for most full-timers.

What the ledger says

Break-even rate$55per hour

Monthly revenue needed
$5,500
Annual revenue needed
$66,000

Estimate, not advice

The formula

Monthly need = personal spending ÷ (1 − tax rate) + business costs. Break-even rate = monthly need ÷ billable hours. Personal costs are paid with after-tax dollars; business costs are deductible, so they enter pre-tax.

What this ignores

Profit (deliberately: this is zero-margin survival), savings and retirement, and slow months. Your quoted rate should sit far above this; use the full rate calculator for the number you actually charge.

Field notes

How is this different from the rate calculator?
The rate calculator targets the income you WANT and prices it. This computes the floor below which you lose money. One is a goal, the other is an alarm. Quote from the first, never breach the second.
A client offers work just under my break-even. Take it?
Only as a conscious, temporary subsidy: portfolio piece, foot in a door, dead-slow month. Say the real rate out loud in the negotiation so the discount is visible and temporary, not your new price.
My break-even looks scarily high. Why?
Usually the hours, not the costs: at 60 billable hours a month, modest living costs already demand a high rate. The fix is capacity (more billable hours) or overhead, in that order. The number is honest; that is its job.