The rule of thumb if you work in California is that you&#x27;ll take home half, assuming all your income is base + bonus + RSUs and not exotics like ISOs or deferred comp plans.  The rest goes to the cost of non-cash compensation, various governments, and your tax-deferred retirement savings.  It&#x27;s usually slightly more than half, depending on the exact numbers, whether you&#x27;re buying medical plans for a family, how much you save in a retirement plan, etc., but that&#x27;s the safe first-order approximation if you&#x27;re budgeting.<p>So someone starting at BigCo in California should expect to take home 100-125k a year for the first few years.  That said, I would caution new entrants to the workforce about three things:<p>- Tax rates are likely to go up, and certainly will not be going down.  It would not be shocking if you were taking home 10% less in a few years solely because of higher taxes.  You can also expect your cost of living to grow much more quickly than the tax bracket boundaries will rise.<p>- Your RSUs are likely to be worth less than you&#x27;re expecting, because market prices will decline in a bust (a major bust is all but certain at some point in your upcoming 4-year vesting period).<p>- In a bust, you will likely get a smaller bonus or none at all (even if the company is still making money), and are unlikely to get a raise, even a nominal cost of living adjustment.  These conditions can last for several years, so even if you keep your job (hardly a given), your total compensation will likely be much less than you expected when you were hired.  A few companies may be doing well enough that you will be exempt, but don&#x27;t count on it.<p>All of these things need to be factored in when evaluating compensation.  It&#x27;s not as simple as adding X + Y + Z and assuming that all changes over the next 5 years will be either neutral or positive.  That&#x27;s not how life is.