Choose by compensation
Salary, commission, partnership income, ownership, pension benefits, and equity compensation require different controls.
FINANCIAL PLANNING BY CAREER
Your job title is not the plan.
Your money system is.
Choose the path that matches how you are paid, taxed, protected, and expected to retire. If two structures apply—such as physician and practice owner—complete both.
Career workbenches
CAREER WORKBENCH
Physicians
Decode the offer before the attending lifestyle begins. Model physician-offer economics, PSLF runway, own-occupation disability coverage, and base-pay lifestyle in one place.
Open physician workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHLawyers
Price the legal career branch you are actually choosing. Test attorney public-service, firm, and partnership paths with different math.
Open legal workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHBusiness Owners
Know what the business can safely distribute. Run the 13-week distribution gate and the largest-customer failure test before cash leaves the company.
Open owner workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHReal-Estate Professionals
Make the deal survive without appreciation. Underwrite cash flow, reserves, stress losses, and the evidence behind expected tax treatment.
Open real-estate workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHCommission & Variable Income
Turn uneven income into a stable paycheck. Calculate a defensible household paycheck, weak-month buffer, tax reserve, and strong-month waterfall.
Open variable-income workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHHigh-Compensation Employees
Keep fragile compensation out of permanent lifestyle. Test spending against durable pay and calculate the real cost of leaving before a bonus or vesting cliff.
Open high-comp workbench → CAREER WORKBENCHAirline Pilots
Translate direct employer contributions and eligible pay into dollars, then stress-test age 65, medical loss, furlough, and variable flying income.
Open pilot workbench →PENSIONS & PUBLIC SERVICE
Teachers, police, firefighters, military, federal, state, local, and other pension-covered employees.
These careers depend on plan documents, service credit, survivor elections, healthcare rules, and benefit timing—not generic retirement math.
HOW TO USE THIS
Job not listed? Choose the closest compensation system.
Salary, bonus, or equity →
Commission or uneven income →
Owner or partner income →
Pension or public service →
Combine overlapping paths
A physician who owns a practice or a realtor with rentals should complete both relevant systems.
Return to the full plan
Career-specific decisions still have to fit retirement, taxes, protection, investing, and lifestyle goals.
YOU ARE DONE WHEN
Compensation, taxes, debt, benefits, protection, retirement, and exit decisions all have an owner and a next action.