Calculator
50/30/20 budget calculator
Splits after-tax income into 50 percent needs, 30 percent wants, and 20 percent savings. Savings is the remainder so the three parts equal take-home pay.
Needs (50%)
$2,000.00
Wants (30%)
$1,200.00
Savings and extra debt payments (20%)
$800.00
How this is calculated
Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi described this split of take-home pay in All Your Worth (Free Press, 2005). Needs are rounded to the nearest cent at 50 percent, wants at 30 percent, and savings is whatever is left so the cents still add up.
Optional actual amounts are compared with those targets. A positive difference means you are over the target. The rule is a poor fit when necessary bills already use more than half of take-home pay — the tight-month guide explains that case. This is not a prescription.