Is the career switch
worth it?
Enter the cost of retraining, income lost during transition, and expected salary in the new field. See your break-even period and 10-year net gain. Break-even math beats vibes.
The question it answersIs switching careers worth the retraining cost and pay cut?
Privacy: runs in your browser. What you enter stays on your device unless you copy a share link, which puts your inputs in the link.
Projection, not a promise. The result follows the assumptions you enter. Real results will differ, sometimes by a lot.
What this tool assumes
- Lifetime earnings compare the two paths over the years-to-retirement you enter, counted from the day the switch starts.
- During the transition months you earn the transition income instead of your current salary, and the new salary starts only after those months end. The part of transition income above your current salary is not counted.
- Training cost is paid up front, at the start of the switch.
- Both salaries are held flat with no growth; real careers have jumps and stalls.
Not financial or career advice.
HOW THIS IS CALCULATED
This tool runs entirely in your browser: no data is sent to any server. It is plain arithmetic on the numbers you enter, with no outside data.
- A negative dollar amount is read as $0, and a note under the inputs says so. Transition income above your current salary is counted as your current salary, also with a note.
- Income foregone = months of reduced income × (current salary ÷ 12) minus months × (transition income ÷ 12), floored at $0.
- Total cost = training cost + income foregone. Annual gain = new salary minus current salary.
- Break-even = months of reduced income ÷ 12 + total cost ÷ annual gain, measured from the day the switch starts and shown to one decimal (in months when under a year). When that rounding would put the label on the other side of a verdict line (3 years, 7 years or your years until retirement), it reads "just under" or "just over" that line instead. If total cost is $0 the switch is never behind, so break-even is 0. If the new salary is not higher, break-even is "Never".
- Verdict: a break-even later than your years until retirement reads "does not break even before retirement"; otherwise under 3 years is "Strong", under 7 years "Solid", anything longer "Marginal". Each of those three also states the runway: years until retirement minus break-even, the time left to collect the higher salary.
- Switch earnings after N years = transition income (capped at current salary) × transition years (or N, if shorter) + new salary × (N minus transition years, never below 0) minus training cost. Stay earnings = current salary × N. Cumulative advantage = switch minus stay, which equals annual gain × (N minus transition years) minus total cost once the transition is over. It is shown at 5, 10 and 20 years (a horizon longer than your years until retirement reads "past your retirement horizon") and at your years until retirement (1 to 50; a value outside that range is replaced by the nearest limit, a blank by 1, and a note says so).
- The chart plots those two cumulative-earnings lines year by year, with a last point at your years until retirement when that is not a whole number.
Not modeled: raises in either career, taxes, benefits, and discounting of future pay. Verify the methodology or inspect the source code in your browser's dev tools.
Where to go from here
Calculators are educational estimates, not financial advice. Disclosures · How pages are reviewed