50/30/20 Budget Calculator
Enter your monthly take-home pay and get your needs, wants, and savings targets instantly — plus the adjusted splits that work when housing costs blow past the classic rule.
Free, no signup, runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Estimates for planning, not financial advice.
How this calculator works
The 50/30/20 rule comes from Senator Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's 2005 book All Your Worth: 50% of take-home pay for needs, 30% for wants, 20% for savings and extra debt payments. Enter your monthly take-home pay — what lands in your account after taxes, FICA, and 401(k) contributions — and the calculator splits it.
The alternate splits exist because the 2005 proportions don't survive 2025 housing costs in many metros. Median U.S. rent rose from $602 (2005) to roughly $1,520 (Q1 2025) per Census data, while wages rose much more slowly. If your needs exceed 50% — common in coastal cities — use 60/25/15 or 70/20/10 rather than abandoning the budget entirely. The proportions are heuristics; the habit of assigning every dollar a bucket is what does the work.
What counts as a need vs a want
Needs are expenses with real consequences if skipped this month: housing, utilities, groceries, transport to work, insurance, minimum debt payments. Wants are everything else — including most subscriptions, dining out, and upgrades to things that already work. If reclassifying wants as needs makes your numbers fit too easily, the categories are lying to you.
Common questions
Should I use gross income or take-home pay?
Take-home pay. The original rule used gross income, but 25-30% of gross is already gone before you see it (taxes, FICA, 401(k)). Budgeting against money you never receive overstates what you can spend. If you want the conservative version, use take-home and treat any employer retirement match as a bonus on top of your 20% savings bucket.
My needs are way over 50%. Is my budget broken?
No — your housing market probably is. Per Apartment List 2024 data, the median renter in Miami spends 41% of income on rent alone; in LA, 35%. Switch to the 60/25/15 or 70/20/10 split, keep the categorization habit, and treat the gap as a medium-term problem to solve through income growth, roommates, or relocation rather than a monthly moral failure.
Does the 20% savings include my 401(k) contribution?
If you compute from take-home pay, your 401(k) contribution already happened before the math — so the 20% is on top of it, which is the stronger position. If you compute from gross, include retirement contributions inside the 20%. Either is defensible; just be consistent month to month so the trend line means something.
How do I actually track which bucket each purchase belongs to?
Tag each transaction with a needs/wants/savings category as you log it. The friction of tracking is the usual failure point — voice entry ('14 dollars lunch') or a receipt photo takes a few seconds, which keeps the habit alive long enough to matter. Review weekly: total each bucket, compare to the targets from this calculator, and adjust the next seven days rather than judging the whole month.
Put the number to work in Cash Compass
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