From what I can see, people who want to compare TC use the formula: TC = base_salary + bonus + current_year_rsus_granted The argument in favor of using th

From what I can see, people who want to compare TC use the formula: TC = base_salary + bonus + current_year_rsus_granted The argument in favor of using this metric is 'this is how management values you right now'. It has the bonus of making vesting schedules moot, and avoids concerns about stock valuation -- shares in GOOG granted 4 years ago are more valuable than shares granted today, leading to an almost unintentional increase in compensation. If you just want to budget your life, well, IMO just use base salary for that when looking at FAANG scale comp. The rest goes to retirement / brokerage investment / Tesla. If you need to proceed anyways, I recommend: - if paid in Restricted Stock Units in a publicly traded company, discount the value by 20 percent - if paid in non-public shares or options, mark to whatever you could get for them if you sold today (typically 0 dollars) - consider all shares vesting this year, regardless of when they were granted -- summing your refreshers is not that hard - plan on 2/3'rds of last year's bonus. - don't rely on referral bonuses unless your job is "recruiter" - don't bother calculating fringe benefits unless you know the money would be spent similarly if you spent a few months on unemployment.