50/30/20 Budget Calculator
Break your monthly income into needs, wants, and savings, plus a timeline for your savings goal.
Your 50/30/20 Split
A simple starting point: half to needs, a third to wants, a fifth to savings.
What the 50/30/20 Rule Is
It's a budgeting starting point made popular by Senator Elizabeth Warren in her book "All Your Worth." The idea is simple: put about 50% of your take-home pay toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings and paying down debt. No spreadsheets full of categories, just three buckets.
Needs are the things you can't skip: rent or mortgage, groceries, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments, transportation to work. Wants are the nice-to-haves: dining out, streaming, hobbies, the upgrade you don't strictly need. Savings is money you keep, whether that's an emergency fund, retirement, or extra debt payoff above the minimums.
Real life rarely splits this cleanly, and that's fine. If your rent alone eats more than half your income, the percentages shift. Treat the 50/30/20 split as a target to aim at, not a rule you've failed if you miss. The savings timeline above shows what's possible if you can protect that 20%.
The content and tools on this site are for general educational purposes only and are not financial, legal, or tax advice. Estimates from our calculators are illustrations, not offers. The breakdown and timeline are estimates to help you plan.
