50/30/20 budget calculator
Split your take-home pay into needs, wants and savings, add your own line items, and see the variance against every target.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing you enter is sent
- Free, no account
Annual take-home
$45,600
$877 a week
Wants — 30%
$1,140.00
everything you would cut in a bad month
Savings & debt — 20%
$760.00
emergency fund, investing, extra debt payments
Savings per year
$9,120
if you hit the target every month
Three-month emergency fund
$5,700
three months of needs
- Needs target50.0%$1,900.00
- Wants target30.0%$1,140.00
- Savings & debt target20.0%$760.00
Where every unit of take-home pay is meant to go.
- Needs target$1,900.00
- Needs planned · over by $310.00$2,210.00
- Wants target$1,140.00
- Wants planned · under by $835.00$305.00
- Savings & debt target$760.00
- Savings & debt planned · under by $310.00$450.00
Left unallocated
$835.00
assign this to savings or a specific goal
| Category | Target | Planned | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Needs | $1,900.00 | $2,210.00 | −$310.00 over target |
| Wants | $1,140.00 | $305.00 | +$835.00 under target |
| Savings & debt | $760.00 | $450.00 | +$310.00 under target |
Formula and working
Monthly take-home
monthly = amount × payments per year ÷ 12 = 3,800 × 12 ÷ 12 = $3,800.00
Needs target
needs = monthly × needs % = 3,800 × 50% = $1,900.00
Wants target
wants = monthly × wants % = 3,800 × 30% = $1,140.00
Savings target
savings = monthly × savings % = 3,800 × 20% = $760.00
Unallocated
left over = monthly − Σ line items = 3,800 − 2,965 = $835.00
Percentages are applied to take-home pay. If you enter gross salary the targets will be too high by roughly your average tax rate.
Assumptions
- The 50/30/20 rule, popularised by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in All Your Worth (2005), splits after-tax income into needs, wants and savings.
- Minimum debt payments count as needs; anything paid above the minimum counts as savings, because it is buying down future interest.
- Weekly and fortnightly pay are annualised at 52 and 26 periods and divided by twelve, so a "monthly" figure includes the two extra pay packets those schedules produce each year.
- Employer pension contributions and payroll deductions taken before you are paid are outside this budget by definition — it starts from what actually reaches your account.
- Nothing you type is uploaded. The save switch writes only to this browser’s local storage, and the delete button clears it.
Where 50/30/20 comes from
The split was popularised by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in All Your Worth (2005). Its virtue is not precision — it is coarseness. Three buckets are few enough to remember and few enough to check against a bank statement in five minutes, which is why people still use it twenty years later while forty-line spreadsheet budgets are abandoned within a month.
- 50% needs — what you would still owe in a bad month.
- 30% wants — everything you could cut without a crisis.
- 20% savings and extra debt payments — money that buys future security.
Take-home pay, not salary
The percentages apply to what actually reaches your account. Using gross salary inflates every target by roughly your marginal tax rate and produces a budget that cannot be followed. If your pension or health premium is deducted before you are paid, it sits outside this budget entirely — you are already saving that money, and it should not be counted twice.
If you are paid weekly or fortnightly, enter the figure and the frequency. The calculator annualises at 52 or 26 periods and divides by twelve, which correctly spreads the two "extra" pay packets a fortnightly schedule produces each year. Budgeting a fortnightly wage as "×2 per month" quietly loses a month's income annually.
The needs/wants line, honestly drawn
| Need | Want |
|---|---|
| Rent or mortgage | A bigger place than you need |
| Utilities, basic phone | Streaming, premium data plan |
| Groceries | Restaurants, takeaway, coffee out |
| Transport to work | A car payment above what a cheaper car would cost |
| Insurance, childcare | Gym, hobbies, holidays |
| Minimum debt payments | — |
Two rules settle most arguments. First: the minimum payment on a debt is a need; anything above it is savings, because it is buying down future interest. Second: if the category could be reduced but not eliminated — food, transport — put the basic version in needs and the difference in wants.
When 50% of your pay does not cover the rent
In an expensive city that is the norm rather than a failure. The rule still does useful work; it just needs recalibrating. Use the 60/20/20 preset and read the overrun as information: it quantifies exactly how much housing is squeezing everything else, which is the number worth taking into a conversation about moving, sharing or negotiating pay.
The one bucket that should resist compression is savings. Cutting savings to zero to preserve wants is the failure mode this framework exists to make visible.
What the variance table is for
Targets alone are a slogan. The variance table compares them against the line items you actually enter, so the answer to "am I overspending?" stops being a feeling. A positive variance means the category has room left; a negative one means the plan already exceeds the target before the month has started.
The "left unallocated" figure is the one to drive to zero. Every unassigned unit of income is a unit that disappears without anyone deciding where it went — which is the actual mechanism behind most "I don't know where my money goes".
A workable first pass
- Enter your take-home pay and the frequency you are paid.
- Pull the last full month of bank and card statements.
- Add one line per recurring payment, tagging each as need, want or savings.
- Add a single "everyday spending" want line for the variable stuff.
- Read the variance. Adjust the split, not the reality, if the mismatch is structural.
- Export the plan to CSV or PDF and check it again next month.
Related targets worth knowing
- Three months of needs — the standard starter emergency fund, shown above from your own needs target.
- Savings rate — savings ÷ take-home pay. Twenty per cent is the rule; the real driver of financial independence is how far above that you can push it.
- Housing ratio — lenders test 28% of gross income, which is roughly 35–40% of take-home. Cross-check with the home affordability calculator.
Your numbers stay on your device
Income and spending are exactly the data a budgeting app monetises. This page has no account, no server and no analytics. Line items are stored only if you switch saving on, only in this browser, and the delete button beside the switch removes them at once. Everything — including the CSV, Excel and PDF exports — is produced locally, so the page works fine with the network turned off.
Questions
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
Half of your take-home pay goes to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings and extra debt payments. It comes from All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, and it works because it is coarse enough to stick to.
Is it based on gross or net income?
Net — the money that actually lands in your account after tax and payroll deductions. Applying the percentages to gross salary overstates every target by roughly your average tax rate.
What counts as a need rather than a want?
Anything you would still have to pay in a bad month: rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, transport to work, insurance and the minimum payment on every debt. Anything above the minimum on a debt counts as savings, because it buys down future interest.
My rent is more than 50% of my pay. Is the rule useless?
No, but the split needs adjusting. Use the 60/20/20 preset for a high-rent city and treat the gap as information: it quantifies exactly how much housing is squeezing everything else.
Is my budget saved or uploaded?
Nothing is uploaded. Line items are only stored if you turn the save switch on, and then only in this browser, with a delete button beside it.