Budget Calculator
Monthly surplus or deficit, every category as a share of take-home pay, and a per-category verdict against the 50/30/20 rule with the fix named.
Budget Calculator: with the default inputs, monthly surplus or deficit is $20.
After tax and payroll deductions — the amount that actually lands in your account.
Side work, rental income, support payments received.
Include property tax, insurance and HOA if you own.
Power, water, gas, internet, phone.
Car payment, fuel, insurance, maintenance, transit passes.
Premiums you pay directly, not those already deducted from your pay.
Minimums on cards and loans. Anything above the minimum belongs in the savings line.
Retirement contributions you make yourself, transfers to savings, and debt payments above the minimum.
Gifts, pets, charity, the things that never fit a category.
Income minus everything, including what you save.
- Over a year
- $240
- Total monthly outgoings
- $5,180
- Needs
- 67.3%Target: 50% of take-home pay.
- Wants
- 22.7%Target: 30%.
- Saving and debt payoff
- 9.6%Target: 20%.
- Needs verdict
- 67.3% against a 50% guideline — $900 a month over.
- Wants verdict
- 22.7% against a 30% guideline — $380 a month of room.
- Saving verdict
- Short by $540 a month. The 20% line is what turns a balanced budget into a retirement.
- Housing as a share of take-home pay
- 32.7%
- Largest single category
- Housing (rent or mortgage) — $1,700, 32.7% of income
Assumptions
- All figures are monthly and in take-home (after-tax) pay, which is how the 50/30/20 rule is defined.
- Category-to-bucket mapping is fixed: minimum debt payments count as needs, anything paid above the minimum counts in the saving bucket.
- A bucket within two percentage points of its target is reported as on target rather than over or under.
- The 2024 comparison figures — $78,535 average annual expenditures per consumer unit, 33.4% housing, 17.0% transport, 12.9% food — are from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey news release.
- Employer retirement contributions and payroll-deducted premiums are outside take-home pay and are not counted unless you add them.
- Irregular annual costs are not modelled; a monthly snapshot will understate them unless you divide them by twelve and enter them.
- Housing (rent or mortgage)$1,70033%
- Groceries$55011%
- Transport (car payment, fuel, insurance, transit)$50010%
- Saving, investing and extra debt payments$50010%
- Eating out and takeaway$3507%
- Minimum debt payments$3006%
- Utilities$2505%
- Shopping and clothing$2505%
- Health and life insurance$2004%
- Entertainment and hobbies$1503%
- Travel$1503%
- Personal care and fitness$1002%
- Everything else$1002%
- Subscriptions and memberships$802%
| Category | 50/30/20 bucket | Monthly | % of income | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing (rent or mortgage) | Needs | $1,700 | 32.7% | $20,400 |
| Groceries | Needs | $550 | 10.6% | $6,600 |
| Transport (car payment, fuel, insurance, transit) | Needs | $500 | 9.6% | $6,000 |
| Saving, investing and extra debt payments | Saving and debt payoff | $500 | 9.6% | $6,000 |
| Eating out and takeaway | Wants | $350 | 6.7% | $4,200 |
| Minimum debt payments | Needs | $300 | 5.8% | $3,600 |
| Utilities | Needs | $250 | 4.8% | $3,000 |
| Shopping and clothing | Wants | $250 | 4.8% | $3,000 |
| Health and life insurance | Needs | $200 | 3.8% | $2,400 |
| Entertainment and hobbies | Wants | $150 | 2.9% | $1,800 |
| Travel | Wants | $150 | 2.9% | $1,800 |
| Personal care and fitness | Wants | $100 | 1.9% | $1,200 |
| Everything else | Wants | $100 | 1.9% | $1,200 |
| Subscriptions and memberships | Wants | $80 | 1.5% | $960 |
How this is worked out
The formula
Surplus = total income − (needs + wants + saving) Share of income = category ÷ total income 50/30/20: needs ≤ 50% of take-home pay, wants ≤ 30%, saving and extra debt payoff ≥ 20%
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Monthly take-home pay
- After tax and payroll deductions — the amount that actually lands in your account.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 5200
- Other monthly income
- Side work, rental income, support payments received.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
- Housing (rent or mortgage)
- Include property tax, insurance and HOA if you own.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 1700
- Utilities
- Power, water, gas, internet, phone.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 250
- Groceries
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 550
- Transport
- Car payment, fuel, insurance, maintenance, transit passes.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 500
- Health and life insurance
- Premiums you pay directly, not those already deducted from your pay.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 200
- Childcare and school fees
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
- Minimum debt payments
- Minimums on cards and loans. Anything above the minimum belongs in the savings line.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 300
- Saving, investing and extra debt payments
- Retirement contributions you make yourself, transfers to savings, and debt payments above the minimum.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 500
- Eating out and takeaway
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 350
- Entertainment and hobbies
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 150
- Shopping and clothing
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 250
- Subscriptions and memberships
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 80
- Personal care and fitness
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 100
- Travel
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 150
- Everything else
- Gifts, pets, charity, the things that never fit a category.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 100
What you get back
- Monthly surplus or deficitmain answer
- Income minus everything, including what you save.
- Over a year
- Total monthly outgoings
- Needs
- Target: 50% of take-home pay.
- Wants
- Target: 30%.
- Saving and debt payoff
- Target: 20%.
- Needs verdict
- Wants verdict
- Saving verdict
- Housing as a share of take-home pay
- Largest single category
What this assumes
- All figures are monthly and in take-home (after-tax) pay, which is how the 50/30/20 rule is defined.
- Category-to-bucket mapping is fixed: minimum debt payments count as needs, anything paid above the minimum counts in the saving bucket.
- A bucket within two percentage points of its target is reported as on target rather than over or under.
- The 2024 comparison figures — $78,535 average annual expenditures per consumer unit, 33.4% housing, 17.0% transport, 12.9% food — are from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey news release.
- Employer retirement contributions and payroll-deducted premiums are outside take-home pay and are not counted unless you add them.
- Irregular annual costs are not modelled; a monthly snapshot will understate them unless you divide them by twelve and enter them.
About this calculator
A budget is two numbers and one honest inventory: what comes in, what goes out, and where the difference goes. This calculator does the arithmetic and then scores your spending against the 50/30/20 rule — 50% of take-home pay on needs, 30% on wants, 20% on saving and paying down debt — with a verdict on each bucket that names the gap in dollars rather than just saying "too high".
Which bucket is which
The split only works if the categories are honest. Needs are the things that continue whether or not you want them to: housing, utilities, groceries, getting to work, insurance, childcare, and the minimum payments on your debts. Wants are everything you choose each month — eating out, subscriptions, travel, clothes. Saving is the 20%: retirement contributions you make yourself, transfers to savings, and any debt payment above the minimum, because paying down a 22% credit card is a better-than-market return.
The most common way people flatter their own budget is by filing wants as needs. A car payment is a need; the size of the car payment is a want. Groceries are a need; a $200 monthly delivery-fee habit is not.
What the guideline is and is not
The 50/30/20 split comes from Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's All Your Worth. It is a heuristic, not a law, and it was written before housing costs in expensive metros made 50% on needs arithmetically impossible for many people. For reference, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found average annual expenditures of $78,535 per consumer unit in 2024, with 33.4% going to housing, 17.0% to transport and 12.9% to food — so the typical American household already spends over 60% of its outgoings on those three lines alone. If your needs run at 60%, the useful response is not to abandon the framework but to see clearly that the 20% has to come from the wants column, or from moving.
Reading the results
- Monthly surplus counts saving as spending, so a positive surplus is money you have not assigned to anything. That is usually money that quietly disappears. Push it into the saving line.
- Housing as a share of take-home pay is called out separately because it is the number with the most leverage and the least flexibility. Every other category can be trimmed next month; housing takes a year and a move.
- Largest single category is the fastest place to look when something has to change.
Where this breaks down
The calculator works in take-home pay, so employer retirement contributions and payroll-deducted premiums sit outside it — if your 401(k) contribution comes out before your paycheque, add it to the saving line manually or your savings rate will read far too low. Everything is monthly and level, which nothing really is: annual insurance premiums, car registration, holidays and the boiler that fails in February all need a sinking fund that a monthly snapshot never shows. And a budget describes intent. What it costs you is what your bank statement says, and comparing the two for one real month is more useful than any calculator.
Frequently asked questions
▸What is the 50/30/20 rule?
Spend no more than 50% of take-home pay on needs and 30% on wants, and put at least 20% toward saving and paying down debt beyond the minimums. It comes from Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's book All Your Worth and is a starting framework, not a prescription.
▸Should I use gross or net income for a budget?
Net — your actual take-home pay. The 50/30/20 rule is defined on after-tax income. The one adjustment worth making is adding back any retirement contribution deducted from your pay before you see it, so your savings rate is not understated.
▸Is a car payment a need or a want?
The transport is a need; the payment size is a choice. File the whole payment under needs for honesty, then notice how much of your 50% it consumes — for many households transport is the second-largest line after housing, at around 17% of total spending nationally.
▸What if my needs are more than 50%?
Very common where housing is expensive. The framework still helps: it tells you the 20% must come out of the wants column, or that the housing line itself is the problem. Treat 50/30/20 as a diagnostic, not a pass/fail test.
▸Where do extra debt payments go?
In the saving bucket. Minimum payments are non-negotiable and belong in needs, but anything above the minimum is a deliberate choice to build net worth — paying off a 22% card is a guaranteed 22% return, better than you will reliably get anywhere else.
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