Layoff Runway Calculator
What you have, what arrives, and what leaves each month
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Planning estimate only. Enter complete, current figures and keep an appropriate buffer for irregular or unexpected expenses.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter what you would actually spend down: cash and savings, the taxable investments you would sell, severance after tax and withholding, and any accrued PTO paid out. Retirement accounts are deliberately left out — reaching them early costs income tax plus a 10% penalty.
- 02
Split the spending in two. Essentials are the bills that arrive whatever happens — housing, food, utilities, transport, minimum debt payments. Discretionary is everything you could stop this month, and it is the lever the page prices.
- 03
Add the health premium that starts the month the employer stops paying its share, and any other income that keeps coming — a partner's paycheck, rent, side work.
- 04
Enter your state's weekly unemployment benefit, the weeks it runs for (26 in most states), any weeks of delay your state applies because of severance, and your marginal tax rate — benefits are fully taxable federally.
- 05
Read the runway, then the runway with discretionary spending cut beside it. The table walks month by month to zero, and the chart draws both paths together.
Formula
Starting balance = cash + (taxable investments × (1 − capital gains cost)) + severance after tax + PTO after tax. Monthly spending = essentials + discretionary + health premium; the cut run drops the discretionary line. Benefits are prorated by week: for each month, the weeks paid are the overlap between that month's weeks and the window running from the delay week to the delay plus the benefit weeks, times the weekly benefit net of your tax rate. Each month the balance becomes balance + benefit + other income − spending, and the runway is the month it first goes below zero, with the part-month interpolated from the burn.
Example
$24,000 of cash, $42,000 of taxable investments (5% lost to capital gains tax, so $39,900 net), $12,000 of severance after tax and $3,400 of PTO — $79,300 to spend. Essentials of $3,400, discretionary of $1,250 and a $690 health premium is $5,340 a month going out. A $520 weekly benefit for 26 weeks, taxed at 12%, is $11,898 net of $1,622 of tax on $13,520 gross. While benefits run the shortfall is $3,357 a month; from month 7, the first with no benefit at all, it becomes $5,340. The money lasts 1 year and 5 months. Cutting the discretionary $1,250 takes it to 1 year and 10 months — five months bought. The health premium alone is 13% of the monthly burn.
Definitions
- Runway
- How many months the money lasts before it reaches zero, given everything arriving and everything leaving. The point of the page is that it is a schedule, not a ratio.
- Weekly benefit amount
- What your state's unemployment insurance pays each week, subject to a state maximum that ranges from $235 to $1,208 across the country.
- Benefit window
- The number of weeks a state pays for — 26 in most, 30 at the top, as few as 12 in a handful. When it closes, the monthly gap roughly doubles.
- COBRA
- The right to keep an employer health plan after leaving, at the full premium plus a 2% administrative fee. It is usually the largest new line in the budget.
- Essential vs discretionary
- The bills that arrive whatever happens, against the spending you could stop this month. The split is what makes a runway a decision rather than a number.
Good to know
Three things arrive at once, and only one of them is a paycheck ending
The reason a layoff budget is hard to picture is that four separate changes land in the same month and they do not move together. Income does not simply stop: severance often arrives as a lump sum, accrued PTO is paid out, unemployment benefits begin at some point that depends on your state, and all three end at different times. Spending does not simply continue either: a health premium the employer was largely paying appears in full, commuting and lunch costs fall, and the discretionary lines can be cut whenever you decide to cut them. And the money you can spend is not the money you have: cash spends at face value, a taxable brokerage account spends at face value less capital gains tax, and a retirement account spends at face value less income tax and a 10% penalty. A single ratio — months of expenses covered — cannot express any of that, which is why this page runs an actual month-by-month schedule instead. The month the benefits stop is the one that matters, and a ratio cannot show you where it falls.
The unemployment benefit is smaller than you think, and taxed
Two facts about unemployment insurance surprise almost everybody, and both of them shorten a runway. The first is the size. State formulas generally target about half of prior weekly wages, but every state applies a maximum, and the maximums vary enormously: $235 a week in Mississippi against $1,208 in Washington as of 2026, with Massachusetts at $1,105 plus $25 per dependent and no cap on the dependents allowance. For anyone earning much above twice their state's cap, the effective replacement rate is nowhere near 50% — the cap, not the formula, is what determines the check. The second is tax. Unemployment compensation is fully taxable as ordinary federal income, reported on Form 1099-G box 1 and entered on Schedule 1 line 7, and withholding is not automatic: you must opt in by filing Form W-4V with the paying state agency or make quarterly estimated payments. The $10,200 exclusion many people remember applied to tax year 2020 alone and was never renewed. The households that get hurt are the ones that budgeted the gross figure, spent it, and met the bill the following April.
Severance and the state you happen to live in
Whether severance delays your unemployment benefits is one of the widest state-to-state divergences in American benefits law, and it is the reason this page asks you for the delay rather than calculating it. California treats severance as not wages for unemployment purposes at all: it does not affect eligibility, it does not reduce the weekly benefit, and benefits begin immediately. New York does close to the opposite — no benefits are payable for any week in the dismissal period in which weekly dismissal pay exceeds the state's maximum weekly benefit rate, so a substantial severance can push the start of benefits out by months. Between those poles, states use several distinct mechanisms: allocating the severance to a defined number of weeks and postponing the claim, treating it as wages that offset the benefit dollar for dollar or partially, or ignoring it entirely. Some states additionally turn on whether payment began immediately after the last day of work, or on whether the severance was contractually required rather than voluntarily offered. The only reliable answer comes from your own state agency, and it is worth a phone call before you plan around a start date.
The lever you control, and the cliff you can see coming
Two numbers on this page do more work than the rest, and both are about timing rather than amount. The first is what cutting discretionary spending buys. At the page's defaults, cutting $1,250 a month — under a quarter of the outgoings — takes the runway from one year five months to one year ten months. The gain is larger than the cut looks because spending is the denominator: money divided by a smaller burn is a longer runway, and the effect accelerates as the burn approaches whatever other income the household has. It is also the only lever here that does not require anyone's permission. The second is the benefit cliff. While benefits run, the shortfall at the defaults is $3,357 a month; from the first month with no benefit at all it is $5,340. The balance therefore looks comfortable for six months and then drains at nearly double the rate, which is precisely the pattern that catches households out. Both numbers point at the same conclusion: make the cuts at the start, when they are worth the most and before the schedule forces them.
Frequently asked questions
Are unemployment benefits taxed?
Fully, as ordinary federal income. They are reported to you on Form 1099-G box 1 and entered on Schedule 1 line 7. Withholding is not automatic — you have to opt in by filing Form W-4V with the state agency paying you, or make quarterly estimated payments. The $10,200 exclusion people remember applied to tax year 2020 only and was never renewed. Benefits are not subject to Social Security or Medicare tax. The households that get caught are the ones who budgeted the gross figure and met the bill the following April.
What should I put for the weekly benefit?
Your own state's figure, which is why it is an editable field. State weekly maximums run from $235 in Mississippi to $1,208 in Washington as of 2026 — a five-fold spread that no single default could sit inside. Massachusetts pays up to $1,105 plus $25 per dependent with no cap on the dependents allowance. State formulas generally target about half of prior weekly wages, so anyone earning much above twice their state's cap lands nowhere near a 50% replacement rate once the maximum binds.
How many weeks do benefits last?
26 in most states, which is what the field opens on. Massachusetts reaches 30. About a dozen states cap lower — Alabama at 14, Arkansas and Florida at 12 — and several of those flex with the state unemployment rate, so the number can move between claims. There is also a second ceiling that rarely gets mentioned: most states cap the total at the lesser of roughly a third of your base-period wages or 26 times the weekly amount, so weeks times weekly benefit is an upper bound rather than an entitlement.
Does severance delay my unemployment benefits?
It depends entirely on the state, which is why the delay is a field you fill in rather than something the page derives. California treats severance as not wages at all: benefits start immediately and are not reduced. New York does the opposite — no benefits are payable for any week in the dismissal period in which weekly severance exceeds the state's maximum weekly benefit rate. Other states allocate severance to a number of weeks and postpone the claim, or offset it partially. Ask your state agency and put their answer in the field.
Why is the health premium so large?
Because the payroll deduction you were used to was only your share. COBRA lets you keep the same plan at the full premium plus a 2% administrative fee, which is why it routinely costs three or four times the deduction. It is usually the largest brand-new line in a post-layoff budget and it starts the month coverage transfers. A year with little or no wage income is usually a year with a large marketplace subsidy, so price a marketplace plan before defaulting to COBRA.
Why does cutting discretionary spending help so much?
Because spending is the denominator. Money divided by a smaller monthly burn is a longer runway, and the effect accelerates as the burn approaches your other income. At the page's defaults, cutting $1,250 a month takes the runway from 1 year 5 months to 1 year 10 months — five extra months bought by a cut of under a quarter of the outgoings. It is also the only lever here you can pull today without anyone's permission.
Why are there two different monthly gaps?
Because the benefit window ends. While benefits run, the shortfall at the defaults is $3,357 a month; from the first month with no benefit at all it becomes $5,340. That cliff lands on a specific month you can see in the table, and it is where most runways actually break — the balance looks comfortable for six months and then drains at nearly double the rate. It is the argument for making cuts at the start rather than at the point the money is visibly going.
Should I include my 401(k)?
Not in the starting balance, and the page deliberately does not ask for it. Reaching a 401(k) or traditional IRA before 59½ costs ordinary income tax plus a 10% penalty, so it is the most expensive money on the balance sheet and a different decision from spending cash. If it comes to that, the liquid net worth page prices exactly what each account would hand over after tax and penalty.