$42,000 a Year Is How Much an Hour?

$42,000 a Year Is How Much an Hour?

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Whenever you apply for a new job, there comes a moment when you wonder if the money you’re going to earn is enough or not.

Will you be able to meet your monthly expenses through your new job or will you have to do something on the side too?

Should you negotiate and ask for more? 

All of these questions are very natural and, of course, need to be answered in order to decide whether a certain job is good for you.

One way to make this whole thing easier for yourself is to break down the annual salary being offered to you into smaller chunks.

This will help you understand exactly how much money you will be earning per hour, per week, and per month.

Why is this information useful? Well, because it will make it possible for you to compare your earnings to your expenses on a weekly or monthly basis.

And when you can do that and see the numbers clearly, you will have a much better idea of whether a certain amount is going to work for you or not.

Let’s say that you’ve just been offered a job that pays you $42,000 a year.

How do you know that this amount will be enough? Calculating one’s expenses for the whole year isn’t easy or practical.

And that is why you need to know the hourly rate of yearly income of $42,000.

42k a Year is How Much an Hour?

The short answer to what is $42,000 a year hourly is $20.19.

How do we get to this number?

We are assuming that your new job is a typical 9 to 5 affair that needs you to work 5 days a week.

So, per week, you will be working for 40 hours.

When you scale that 40-hour workweek to a year, you get 2080 hours based on the 52 weeks of the year.

After that, it is a simple matter of dividing the annual salary by the number of hours worked annually. 

$42000 a Year is How Much an Hour After Taxes?

Now, this is where things get a little complicated.

When your employer says that you will earn $42,000 a year, they are most likely not telling you how much of that will go towards taxes so it is up to you to figure it out.

You cannot consider $42k as $42k because of this.

Depending on which state you are living in, you are expected to pay certain taxes on your wage. 

After the relevant tax deductions, your $42k a year salary will look more like something between $32.2k and $35.4k a year.

That is up to almost $10k in taxes that you’ll be paying!

To find out exactly how much you will lose to taxes, be sure to check your state laws. 

How Much Will The Paycheck Be?

Weekly Paycheck

If your employer pays you on a weekly basis, your paycheck for $42k should be $807.69.

But when we factor in the taxes, it will really be somewhere between $619.23 and $680.77. 

Bi-Weekly Paycheck

If you get paid every two weeks, then you would think that you’ll be getting a $1,615.38 paycheck but that’s not true.

In reality, it will have an amount between $1,238.46 and $1,361.54. 

Monthly Paycheck

And if you’re being paid on a monthly basis like most people out there, you will be earning somewhere between $2,683.33 and $2950 as opposed to the $3,500 that you may have had in mind before factoring in tax deductions. 

Why Is All Of This Important?

As you can see, there are various numbers that you have to consider after finding out $42000 a year is how much an hour.

One of the main aspects that people usually forget about is the fact that they have to pay taxes on their salary.

While there may be some states that don’t tax wages, most of them do. Knowing exactly how much you’re going to pay in taxes is crucial in showing you a clearer picture of your regular earnings.

Otherwise, you are bound to overestimate your earnings, and, at the end of the day, your budget is going to be adversely affected. 

Is $42k A Year Good Enough?

Generally speaking, an annual $42k salary is good to live on. If you’re single, then it shouldn’t be a problem at all to live comfortably on such a salary.

You can live a good life even with a small family.

However, if you have multiple dependents and are the sole breadwinner of the household, then this amount might end up becoming difficult to live on. 

However, even if that is the case, you can still manage your expenses by creating a detailed budget for each month.

Creating a budget and then sticking to it is a great way to not only be comfortable but also to save up a little at the end of each month.

Always prioritize saving some money because it’s this money that will help you out when you’re in need or when you want to have a small vacation with your family. 

Another thing to consider is doing some freelance work.

If you are not required at your job the whole day, you can use your free time to do some other work and effectively increase your hourly income. 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, knowing how much an hour is 42k a year will help you decide how you want to live your life and what things you need to prioritize.

Save money whenever and however possible and keep setting it aside little by little.

When you save up a small amount, invest it in some low-risk opportunities to steadily increase your savings over time. Pay off all your debts as soon as you can to reduce the weight of interest.

Doing these things on a regular basis is a great way to have a good life while also saving up and doing something for yourself and your family from time to time.