Millennials Regret their Student Loan Debt. They Overestimated Starting Salaries.

[ucbalumnus]

@sybbie719

I think the bigger issue is that some students think that because they make $65K/year as a year, that they will be taking home 65k/year. This will probably be almost half as others stated (approx 35k) after taxes, 401k/403b/mandatory contributions, insurance etc. When you get your after tax $$ you must pay rent, car loans, student loans, phones, etc and you see that your money is not going far.

$65k per year gross yields about $47k-$52k after income and payroll taxes for a single person with no dependents or itemized deductions, depending on state and local income and payroll taxes. See https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes .

Obviously, other payroll deductions like for employer subsidized insurance, 401k/403b contributions, etc. depend on the employer and the employee’s choices where applicable. But do most entry level employees really have $12k-$17k of such additional payroll deductions to get their take home down to $35k if they start with $65k gross?