Just looked into something that's been bugging me - if you make 100k a year, how much is actually hitting your bank account after taxes? Spoiler alert: it varies way more than I expected depending on where you live.

So I found this breakdown and the numbers are kind of wild. If you're in a state with no income tax like Texas, Florida, Nevada, or Washington, you're looking at keeping around 78.7k. Meanwhile, if you're in Oregon? You're down to about 70.5k. That's roughly an 8k difference on the same salary just because of geography.

The federal hit is consistent everywhere - FICA taxes, Social Security, all that stuff adds up to about 7.65k right off the top. But then state taxes kick in and that's where things get messy. Most states with income tax are taking between 23k to 27k total in taxes. California, Hawaii, Maine - they're all hovering around 26-27k in total tax burden. Places like Indiana and Louisiana are a bit lighter at 23-24k.

What's interesting is the monthly breakdown. If you're in a higher tax state and your after-tax income is around 73-74k annually, that's roughly 6100-6200 per month. In a no-income-tax state, you're getting closer to 6560 monthly. Sounds like a small difference but over a year it adds up.

I get why people say taxes are complicated - you've got federal brackets, state rates, local taxes in some places, all stacking on top of each other. The effective tax rate on 100k ranges from about 21% in the low-tax states to nearly 30% in the high ones. Makes you realize how much of that six-figure salary is actually yours to keep.