PayCalculator

Budget Calculator

Plug in your monthly take-home pay and expenses. See instantly how your budget compares to the 50/30/20 rule and what to fix first.

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After taxes. Not sure? Use the paycheck calculator first.

Elizabeth Warren's classic balanced budget

Your monthly expenses

Needs

target $2,500 (50%)

Must-haves: housing, groceries, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments

$3,00060.0%

$500 over target

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$
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Wants

target $1,500 (30%)

Discretionary: dining, entertainment, hobbies, subscriptions

$73014.6%

$770 under target

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$

Savings & debt payoff

target $1,000 (20%)

Retirement, emergency fund, investments, extra debt payments

$1,00020.0%

On target

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$
$

Total expenses

$4,730/mo

Surplus

+$270/mo

$3,240/yr

Savings rate

20.0%

$12,000/yr

How you compare to 50 / 30 / 20

Needs$3,000 (60%) vs target $2,500 (50%)
Wants$730 (15%) vs target $1,500 (30%)
Savings$1,000 (20%) vs target $1,000 (20%)

Vertical line marks the target percentage. Bars show your actual spending.

What this means

✓

You have $270 unaccounted for each month. Consider routing it to savings, extra debt payoff, or investments — otherwise it tends to get spent on wants.

✓

Your savings rate is 20.0% — meeting or exceeding the 20% target. Consistently saving 20%+ of income is one of the strongest predictors of long-term financial security.

⚠

Your needs spending is 60% of income — 10 percentage points over the 50% target. Your biggest needs line item is "Rent / Mortgage" at $1,500/mo. If this is housing, the standard rule is to keep total housing under 30% of gross income.

All math runs in your browser · Edit any line item, add categories, or change the framework to model alternatives

How this budget calculator works

Every dollar of your monthly take-home pay goes into one of three buckets: needs, wants, or savings. The calculator sums each bucket, computes its percentage of income, and compares it against the framework target you select. The bigger the gap between actual and target, the more urgently it shows up in the insights below.

The 50/30/20 rule (default)

50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings. This is the default for a reason: it leaves room for both quality of life and long-term security, and it's simple enough to maintain for years without spreadsheets.

The 60/20/20 rule (high-cost areas)

If you live in NYC, SF, Boston, Seattle, or another high-cost city, housing alone often eats 35–45% of take-home. The 60/20/20 framework acknowledges this reality — needs get more breathing room, but savings stays at 20%.

The 50/20/30 saver's framework

For aggressive savers — anyone targeting financial independence or playing catch-up on retirement — wants gets compressed to 20% and savings expands to 30%. At a 30% savings rate maintained over 25 years, you can typically retire in your mid-50s.

Need to find your take-home pay?

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Have credit card or loan debt?

Use the debt payoff tool to see exactly how the savings bucket can buy back years of your life.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the 50/30/20 budget rule? ▾
The 50/30/20 rule, popularized by Senator Elizabeth Warren, says you should spend roughly 50% of your take-home pay on needs (rent, groceries, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments), 30% on wants (dining, entertainment, hobbies, subscriptions), and put 20% toward savings, investments, and extra debt payoff. It's deliberately simple — most people who try to track every category give up; three buckets are easy to maintain.
What counts as a 'need' vs a 'want'? ▾
Needs are things you can't easily eliminate without major lifestyle disruption: housing, basic groceries, utilities, transportation to work, health insurance, minimum debt payments. Wants are everything discretionary: dining out, streaming subscriptions, hobbies, vacations, shopping, gym memberships. Some items are judgment calls (a basic phone plan is a need; the $1,200 phone is closer to a want). Be honest with yourself — calling everything a 'need' defeats the point.
Should I budget based on gross or take-home pay? ▾
Take-home pay (after federal, state, FICA, and any pre-tax deductions like 401(k) or HSA). The 50/30/20 percentages refer to what hits your bank account. Note that pre-tax 401(k) contributions don't count in the 'savings' bucket here because you've already saved that money before take-home — count any additional savings on top of payroll deductions.
What if my needs are way over 50%? ▾
It's extremely common, especially in high-cost-of-living areas. The classic rule (housing under 30% of gross income) is hard in cities like NYC, SF, Boston, or LA. The 60/20/20 framework is a more realistic alternative for HCOL markets. Long-term, the only sustainable fixes are: increase income, move somewhere cheaper, or accept a lower wants/savings rate. The biggest individual lever is usually housing — every $200/month saved on rent is $2,400/year that can flow to savings.
What's a good savings rate? ▾
20% is the textbook minimum target. 25–30% is solid. The 'FIRE' (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community typically targets 50%+, but that requires aggressive lifestyle choices. Even 5–10% is meaningful if you're starting from zero — what matters most is consistency over decades, not perfection in any single month. A 15% savings rate over 30 years easily beats a 30% rate over 5 years followed by burnout and dropping to 0%.
How does this compare to zero-based budgeting? ▾
Zero-based budgeting (popularized by YNAB and Dave Ramsey) requires you to assign every dollar of income to a category until your surplus is exactly $0. The 50/30/20 framework is more lightweight — you only track three buckets. Both approaches work; zero-based gives you more control but takes more time to maintain. If you're new to budgeting, start with 50/30/20 and graduate to zero-based if you want more precision.
Is my data saved anywhere? ▾
No. Every calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server, no cookies are set, and your budget details disappear the moment you close the tab.