Bonus Allocation Planner

The engine fills each priority bucket completely before moving to the next: emergency fund first, then high-interest debt, then retirement, in that fixed order. If your emergency fund gap and debt balance together exceed your after-tax bonus (minus the fun-money slice), there's nothing left by the time the retirement step runs, regardless of how large you set the retirement gap field.

It multiplies the dollar amount routed to debt payoff by your entered interest rate as a single year's simple interest — a first-year approximation, not a multi-year compounding projection. Real revolving debt paid down early saves more than this over subsequent years as the balance you'd otherwise still be paying interest on keeps shrinking, but the calculator only estimates the immediate first-year effect.

No — the code hardcodes a 7% average annual return compounded flatly over exactly 10 years for the "Retirement Growth (10yr)" figure, regardless of your actual investment mix, the size of your retirement gap, or any other input. Treat it as a rough directional signal for whether contributing is worth it, not a personalized portfolio projection.

The calculator only knows your gross bonus amount, so it needs an explicit rate to multiply the bonus by one minus your entered withholding percentage and estimate the after-tax amount that then gets allocated. The U.S. federal supplemental flat rate is commonly 22%, but your actual paycheck may withhold more once state tax and FICA are layered on, so the after-tax figure here is only as accurate as the rate you supply.