Understanding travel nurse pay packages, how to determine fair pay, and your travel nurse housing stipend are hard things to grasp as a new traveler. Now, with COVID crisis rates being advertised and job market fluctuations, it can be even more confusing to figure out how to know if you are making enough money to cover housing for the area you will be living in.  There is not a one size fits all solution to determining if your pay package is fair or not, but you can use a few different tools to help you gauge each offer you receive and decide if it is going to work for you. An important piece of advice to remember is that recruiters ultimately do not control how much the hospital is willing to offer to pay their travel nurses. Sometimes, the pay package does not match the cost of living for the area and facilities are banking on inexperienced travelers getting more excited about location than anything else. This does not have to be you! Stay educated, do your research, and don’t be afraid to say no if you simply can’t afford what is offered.  Pay Package Structure There could be a whole separate article written about pay packages and travel nurse housing stipends, but I will just hit the high points.  The hourly taxable rate is what you will claim at the end of the year for your income. This usually starts at around $20 per hour and could go up or down depending on location and average pay in the area. Ultimately you do not want to take a super low taxable rate, because this could flag the IRS that you were not being paid appropriately, leading to you getting audited (no fun at all!). This is why most travelers will only take hourly rates of $20 or more.  The rest of your income comes from tax-free travel nurse housing stipends and per diems. These are meant to cover the cost of living away from home, and the increased cost of food and essentials while on assignment. You need to be able to prove that you were paying for short term housing wherever you stay. This means you cannot simply stay at a hotel for three days a week but collect seven days’ worth of stipends. You can, however, pocket any additional stipend leftover once you have paid for housing. This is how a lot of travelers take home the most money. For in-depth information on the tax laws surrounding travel nurse pay, be sure to check out TravelTax.com. Decide What You Want The most important part of figuring out how much you need to spend on housing is knowing what you want in your space. Do you want to live alone? Does the unit need to be pet friendly? Do you have room to bring small items like kitchen basics or linens? Property owners do their research before pricing their space, so they know how to competitively price their rental based on what you get. Obviously, private units will be more expensive than renting a room in someone’s home. In addition, pet-friendly rentals are usually a bit more expensive. They will either charge a monthly pet rent or require fees to cover any sort of deep cleaning or flea treatments they will want to do when a tenant moves out.  Make a list of your housing must-haves and deal-breakers before you start looking at pricing. This will help you narrow down your search and give you a more realistic idea of what your ideal space will cost. Each bonus amenity will add up, so knowing what you really,...