How 50/30/20 budget calculator works
The 50/30/20 rule is a budgeting guideline popularised by Senator Elizabeth Warren in 'All Your Worth': after tax, roughly half your income goes to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings and debt payoff. Needs are the bills you cannot skip — rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum debt payments, transport to work. Wants are lifestyle choices — dining out, subscriptions, hobbies, travel. The final 20% covers emergency-fund building, retirement contributions, extra debt payments beyond the minimums and other saving.
The arithmetic is deliberately simple so it stays transparent: needs = income × 50 / 100, wants = income × 30 / 100, savings = income × 20 / 100. The calculator also divides each monthly amount by 52/12 (the average number of weeks in a month) to give a weekly figure, and multiplies the savings amount by 12 to show what the rule adds up to in a year — for a 3,500 take-home income that is 8,400 a year put towards savings or debt.
Enter your monthly take-home pay (after tax, not your gross salary) and the three amounts update instantly. If 50/30/20 does not fit your situation, adjust the percentages — maybe 60/20/20 in a high-rent city — and the tool validates that they still add up to exactly 100% before computing, so the budget always covers your full income.