Put in what you already know and leave the rest at the defaults — a rough number today beats an exact one next week, and the figure that matters is the month, not the cents. Then do the two things that are time-sensitive regardless of what the screen says: file your unemployment claim this week, because the date you file is the date your benefit year is measured from, and read the severance paperwork before you sign it rather than after. Everything else can wait until you have a date to plan against.

It depends on your state and on how the severance was written, and getting it wrong is the single biggest error in this arithmetic. A lump sum often does not reduce the weekly benefit; salary continuation usually does, because while it is being paid you are generally treated as still receiving wages, so the claim starts when the continuation ends. Glidepath assumes the relay — continuation first, then the benefit — and lets you override it, because a handful of states allocate the money differently. File the claim either way; waiting to see does not help you.

Nowhere. Your finances stay on the device: the calculation runs in the page in front of you and the numbers you type are not sent anywhere, so there is no copy for us to read, lose, or be asked for. Account — optional, always: nothing about the calculation needs one. The register on this page asks for an email address, is kept on our own ledger, and is used once, on the day it ships — it is never attached to a figure you entered.

Accurate enough to plan with and not accurate enough to promise. The benefit table covers all fifty states and the District of Columbia and estimates from your prior wage and your state's cap and duration, but states index and amend those rules and yours is the authority. COBRA is the full unsubsidized premium plus a small administrative fee, which is usually a great deal more than the payroll deduction you were used to — your ex-employer's administrator gives you the real quote, and it is worth getting before you decide. Every estimated figure on the page can be overwritten with your actual one.

Pricing published before launch. There is no figure yet, and putting a made-up one here would only mean printing something that turns out to be untrue. When it is decided it appears on this page, in public, before anything can be bought. What will not exist at any price: ads, an insurance or job-board affiliate program, and a subscription that keeps billing you through the months this was built for.

No, and it does not want to be. Glidepath is arithmetic and a plain explanation of the rules it is applying — an educational planning tool, not advice about your situation, your severance agreement, or your taxes. Verify your unemployment eligibility and weekly amount with your state agency, get the real COBRA quote from the administrator, and if there is a release in front of you, an hour with an employment attorney is worth more than any calculator.