A relocation budget built from official data
A relocation budget has to answer two questions: what will come in after taxes, and what will the fixed costs of the new place be? This planner answers both for one metro at a time. It runs the 2026 federal, state and local income-tax rules for your household, then prices housing, childcare, food, energy, fuel and sales tax with the official dataset for each — and shows the source and vintage under every line so you can check it.
Example: a family of three in Denver, CO
The planner opens with two adults earning $66,000 and $44,000 ($110,000 combined) and one toddler in full-time center care, renting a 2-bedroom home. These figures come from the same engine as the tool above:
| Line | Monthly | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes | $1,592 | 2026 federal, FICA, Colorado and local rules (17.4% of income) |
| Rent | $2,169 | HUD FY2027 Fair Market Rent, 2 bedrooms |
| Childcare | $1,983 | DOL NDCP price for Denver County, CO, toddler (2), current dollars |
| Food at home | $998 | USDA Moderate-Cost plan × BEA price parity for goods |
| Fuel, sales tax and other spending | $1,338 | EIA gasoline, state sales tax, your spending baseline × BEA RPP |
| Left over | $1,087 | for savings and everything not modeled |
See the full Denver, CO cost-of-living profile for rents by bedroom, home values, property taxes and childcare by age.
How each part of the budget is estimated
Taxes
Taxes are annual liabilities under 2026 law, not paycheck withholding. Two adults are treated as married filing jointly; one adult files single or, with children, as head of household if you choose it. The federal Child Tax Credit counts against tax; any refundable part you might receive at filing is not counted as income. Social Security applies to each earner up to the wage base. Where the metro’s principal city or county levies a mandatory local income tax that is in our verified data, it is included for a resident; otherwise the result says so.
Housing
Renters are priced at HUD’s Fair Market Rent, the 40th-percentile gross rent for standard-quality units — about the rent a household moving today pays for a typical, not luxury, unit. Gross rent includes utilities paid by tenants, so renters get no separate utility line. Homeowners pay principal and interest on the price and terms they enter, property tax at the metro’s effective rate from Census data (median taxes paid divided by median home value), insurance they enter, and the state’s average electricity bill from EIA.
Childcare
Each child is priced at the county median weekly price for their age band and care type, times the number of weeks you enter. DOL’s most recent county prices are from 2022; by default we bring them to today’s dollars with the BLS consumer price index for day care and preschool, and the note under the line shows the original weekly prices.
Food, fuel and everything else
Food uses USDA’s official food plans for each family member’s age, with USDA’s household-size adjustment, scaled by the metro’s Regional Price Parity for goods. Fuel is your mileage divided by your car’s mpg times EIA’s latest retail price for the state or region. “Other goods” and “other services” are the monthly amounts you would spend at US-average prices, scaled by the metro’s price parities — a transparent estimate rather than a measured cost. State sales tax is applied to other goods and, in states that tax them, groceries.
Using the result
- If the amount left over is small or negative, change the inputs you control first: bedrooms, care type, cars and food plan.
- Add costs you already know (health premiums, a car payment, student loans) in “Fixed costs / month”.
- To see what salary you would need to keep your current standard of living, use the cost of living comparison.