Our Methodology

The model at /realistic-income-model has one design rule: it never invents market pay data. The dollar output is arithmetic on numbers the user supplies — their own researched rate and their own available hours. The only values the model contributes are three published assumptions described below.

The three assumptions (all documented, all editable)

• The ramp curve. Almost no method pays its full steady-state amount in month one. The ramp is a 12-month table showing the fraction of full capability we assume is achievable each month, at three starting skill levels. It starts at 0% for a complete beginner and approaches 100% by month 12 for an experienced person. It is an editorial assumption, not a measurement.
• The billable ratio. For service work, only part of a working week is billable; sales, admin, revisions and invoicing are unpaid but unavoidable. Ratios range from 1.0 (a salaried role) down to 0.6 (freelancing). This converts total hours into productive hours.
• The time-to-first-payment band. Each method has a modelled range of weeks before a first payment is plausible at ~10 hours/week, which the model compresses or extends based on the hours the user enters.

Asset-based methods (content sites, digital products, affiliate) default to a $0 rate and ask the user to enter an amount only if they already have measured revenue — because those methods return nothing until traffic or sales exist. The ±30% uncertainty band applied to the output is an explicit, generous acknowledgement that real results vary.

The directory at /remote-role-matrix compares roles on entry difficulty, typical degree requirement, and pay tier.

Pay tiers, not pay quotes

Each role is assigned one of four tiers — below, around, above, or well above the US all-occupations median wage — based on the occupation's Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook figure. Every row links to the specific BLS page for that occupation so the reader can verify the real number themselves. We deliberately do not print our own dollar figures, because a static wage number we published would be out of date and out of place for most readers' locations.

Entry difficulty and degree requirement are editorial ratings based on common hiring practice and credential expectations for each role, not employer statistics. They are transparently labelled as such.

• We do not print fabricated "you could earn $X/month" income claims.
• We do not invent statistics, surveys, experience, reviews or credentials.
• We do not present modelled ranges as guarantees.
• We do not quote salaries without a verifiable source.
• We do not claim that low-effort methods replace a job — see our disclaimer.