50/30/20 Budget Calculator
Enter your take-home pay and your expenses, monthly or yearly, to see how much goes to needs, wants and savings, and how far you are from 50/30/20: which block is over and how much more you need to save to reach 20%.
Your expenses
Enter your monthly take-home pay and what you spend.
Take-home pay: what you get after taxes and deductions. Minimum debt payments are needs; anything you pay off above the minimum counts as savings.
See how much these savings grow →Results are estimates. Solvemis accepts no responsibility for the results obtained or for how they are used. Always double-check the result and talk to a qualified professional before making decisions.
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How it works
How to use it
- Enter your monthly take-home pay: what reaches your account after taxes.
- Fill in the amount of each expense, whether it's monthly or yearly, and whether it's a need, a want or savings. You can rename, remove and add rows.
- See your split next to 50/30/20 and how much you're over or short in each block.
- Download the result as a PDF, or your expense list as a CSV, to keep it handy.
How it is calculated
Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's rule (All Your Worth, 2005), applied to take-home pay: needs up to 50%, wants up to 30% and savings, including paying off debt above the minimum, at least 20%. Yearly expenses count divided by twelve. Savings are what's left after needs and wants, whether you list them or not; if you spend more than you earn, they come out negative.
Savings = take-home pay − needs − wants
Sources
- All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan — Simon & Schuster (Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi)
- What is the 50/30/20 budget rule? — Chase
About this calculator
How the money is split
The 50/30/20 rule divides your take-home pay, what you have left after taxes, into three blocks:
- 50% for needs, at most: housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, insurance and minimum debt payments.
- 30% for wants, at most: eating out, entertainment, travel and subscriptions.
- 20% for savings, at least: your emergency fund, retirement or paying off debt early.
For every 100 you take home, 50 goes to needs, 30 to wants and 20 to savings.
How far you are from 50/30/20
The tool adds up your expenses by block, with yearly ones divided by twelve, and compares them with the rule. It tells you which block is over and by how much, and how much more you need to save each month to reach 20%. The bar shows it at a glance: needs shouldn’t go past the first mark (50%), and needs and wants together shouldn’t go past the second (80%).
Savings are what’s left
You don’t need to list your savings for them to count: they’re what’s left after needs and wants. If you also list what you set aside on purpose, such as a retirement plan, the tool shows how much of your savings isn’t assigned to anything. If that money actually goes on expenses you haven’t listed, add them; otherwise the result will look better than it is.
A guideline, not a law
50/30/20 is a starting point. Where housing is expensive, needs easily take more than half of your income, and then it makes sense to trim wants and save what you can. What helps is seeing where your money goes and deciding with the numbers in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
A simple way to split your money, from Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's book All Your Worth (2005): of your take-home pay, at most half for needs, at most 30% for wants and at least 20% for savings or for paying off debt early.
What counts as a need and what as a want?
A need is something you would still have to pay if you cut everything else: housing, utilities, groceries, getting to work, insurance and minimum debt payments. A want is a choice: eating out, travel, subscriptions, clothes you don't need. If you're unsure about an expense, ask yourself whether you'd keep paying it in a tough month.
What if I can't save 20%?
It's common when housing takes a big share. The tool tells you how much you're short each month and which block is over, so you can see where to cut back. The rule is a guideline, not a law: where rents are high it may not be realistic, and what matters is saving something regularly.
How do I enter expenses I pay once a year?
Choose “Yearly”: the tool divides them by twelve. That way car insurance, home insurance or vacations count too, even though you don't pay them every month.
Updated October 7, 2026
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