Total compensation is the full yearly value of a job: base salary, target bonus, the annual value of stock that vests, and sometimes a dollar figure for benefits like a 401(k) match or health insurance. It is the number recruiters quote and the one that makes two offers comparable.
Consider two offers. Job A pays $150,000 salary with no equity and a 10% bonus, so about $165,000 total. Job B pays $130,000 salary, a 15% bonus, and $240,000 of RSUs vesting over four years. Job B's total is $130,000 plus $19,500 plus $60,000, or $209,500. On salary alone A wins; on total comp B wins by a wide margin.
But the pieces are not equally reliable. Salary is fixed. Bonus can be zero. Stock rises and falls with the market and, at private companies, may never become cash. The common mistake is comparing totals without weighing how much of each total is guaranteed and when each piece arrives. A $209,500 job might deposit $130,000 of it evenly across the year and the rest in four or five lumps.
A good habit is to separate the guaranteed monthly part (which pays bills) from the lumpy part (which funds goals). Allocate is built around that split: salary sets the monthly rhythm and each bonus or vest is an expected income event with a date.