Financial Planning
No napkin math, no flat averages. Plug in your real loan, real interest and real raises, and see the exact month your degree flips from cost to payoff.
Every other ROI calculator does the same lazy math: total cost divided by starting salary, done. This one doesn't.
- Tracks your actual loan, not the sticker price
- Interest compounds monthly, like a real loan does
- Simulates month by month for your exact break-even month
Quick definition
Your "investment" here is your loan balance, not the tuition invoice. Pay in cash and there's no interest to outrun - which is why the loan, not the invoice, is what this tool tracks.
Understanding each component of the calculation
Tuition and living costs for the length of your program, plus one-time costs (applications, tests, visa, flights, moving), minus scholarships or aid - that's your total expenses. Whatever you or your family pay directly comes off that number; everything left over is financed as a loan by default.
No interest accrues while you're in school. From graduation on, every dollar of your net monthly benefit goes toward interest first, then principal, recalculated every month - not once a year, like most amortization tables pretend. There's no fixed term: the loan is paid off whenever the math says it's paid off, and that month is your break-even point.
Not your raw salary - what's left of it. We take your after-tax U.S. income and subtract your U.S. living costs (rent, food, transport - you enter these); both grow every year at whatever raise you set (4% by default). That net figure, calculated month by month instead of averaged, is what actually pays the loan down and eventually turns into pure return.
Interactive calculator
When does it pay for itself?
What you put in
Application fees, tests, visa, flights, move-in.
Total for your whole program, not a per-year amount.
Total expenses
$120,000
Computed automatically from the fields above.
Paid directly, not borrowed. We assume the rest of your investment is financed as a student loan by default.
Student loan
Financed via loan
$70,000
Computed automatically: total investment minus what you self-fund above.
At 0%, this behaves like interest-free family money - the timeline below is unaffected either way until you raise it.
What you get back
We net your U.S. living costs against your salary before counting it toward what you put in - a more honest measure than simply lining up gross salary against tuition.
Rent, food, transport, etc. - pre-filled from public cost-of-living data for the state above, subtracted from your U.S. salary.
Federal + state + FICA combined, pre-filled from the state above at your salary level - edit it if you have a more precise number.
Time to break even
2y 5mo
counted from graduation day
Total expenses
$120,000
Student loan
$70,000
Position at year 10
$286,931
This is here to help you visualize the cost and ROI of a degree - it's not financial advice, and we're not responsible for decisions made from it. Check your own numbers before relying on any of this.
Designed & © 2026 byricheese
The number that matters isn't "worth it or not" - it's the month your loan hits zero.
Change the career, the state, the raise, the loan rate - every input above is yours to break.
Already sorted the money side? Here's everything that goes into the application itself.
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