📖 Guides
The documents and rules of work, money, and taxes, decoded in plain language — verifiable facts with official sources, never advice. Each guide ends at the calculator that does the actual math.
The money checklist for the first two weeks after a layoff
The financial steps that are time-sensitive after a job ends, in the order their deadlines arrive — filing for unemployment, the COBRA election window, the severance signing period, and the final paycheck.
Updated 2026-08-01
How states actually calculate an unemployment benefit
Why two people with the same salary receive very different weekly benefits: the base period that decides which wages count, the formula families states use, and the caps that flatten the result.
Updated 2026-08-01
Quarterly taxes in your first year of self-employment
What changes when income arrives without withholding: self-employment tax on top of income tax, four payment dates that do not divide the year evenly, and the safe harbor that prevents a penalty when income is unpredictable.
Updated 2026-08-01
What you take on when you hire a nanny
Paying someone to work in your home can make you an employer, at a lower threshold than most people expect. The federal tests, the two separate triggers, and the state layer federal guidance does not mention.
Updated 2026-08-01
Why your paycheck changed when nothing else did
The usual explanations for a take-home figure that moved without a raise: the Social Security wage base, a new Form W-4, a bonus withheld at the supplemental rate, and the Additional Medicare threshold.
Updated 2026-08-01