Budget (50/30/20)

How this 50/30/20 split is built

50/30/20 is a guideline for after-tax (take-home) pay, not a law. This calculator multiplies the take-home amount you enter by each percent you set. It does not pull transactions from a bank, and it does not enforce that the three percents sum to 100%.

Default buckets

• Needs (~50%) — housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum debt payments, essential transport
• Wants (~30%) — restaurants, travel, hobbies, upgrades you could cut without missing rent
• Savings (~20%) — emergency fund, retirement, extra principal, taxable investing

If you live in a high-rent metro, needs often exceed 50%. That is not a moral failure; it is a constraint. Raise needs, cut wants, and keep a non-zero savings line if you can — even 10% is a plan, unlike “whatever is left.”

Worked example

Monthly take-home $5,000 at the default 50/30/20 split:

If rent and groceries already consume $3,200, set needs to 64% ($3,200). The remaining $1,800 has to cover wants and savings. A 16% savings / 20% wants split is still a budget. A 0% savings split is a warning.

Percents are applied independently. If you set 50 / 30 / 30, the three dollar amounts will sum to 110% of take-home. The page still shows each bucket; it will not invent a fourth “overspend” account. Edit until the total matches how you actually want cash to move.

Where the take-home number should come from

Do not budget from gross salary. Run take-home pay first (federal + FICA skeleton), then subtract state tax and benefits from your real stub, then paste the result here. Pair the savings bucket with emergency fund if that 20% is a cash target.

This is a split of cash you already have, not a forecast of raises. Guide: the 50/30/20 budget guideline.