See your monthly surplus or deficit and how your spending compares to the 50/30/20 rule.
| Category | Amount | % of Income |
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Enter your monthly take-home income, then fill in your typical spending across each category. The calculator totals your expenses, shows what's left over (or how far short you are), and breaks your spending into needs, wants, and savings so you can compare it against the popular 50/30/20 guideline.
The 50/30/20 rule is a simple budgeting guideline that suggests allocating about 50% of after-tax income to needs (housing, food, transport, insurance, minimum debt payments), 30% to wants (entertainment, dining out, discretionary spending), and 20% to savings and extra debt repayment. It's a starting point rather than a strict rule — high cost-of-living areas often push the needs percentage higher.
A budget makes the gap between income and spending visible before it becomes a problem. Categorising expenses also reveals where money is going that might otherwise be invisible in day-to-day spending, such as recurring subscriptions or frequent small discretionary purchases that add up over a month.
Needs are expenses required to maintain a basic standard of living and meet obligations: housing, utilities, groceries, transport, insurance, healthcare, and minimum debt payments. Wants are discretionary: entertainment, dining out, hobbies, and non-essential subscriptions. The line isn't always clean — a portion of a grocery bill spent on treats could be considered a want — so treat the split as a useful approximation.
A negative leftover amount means spending currently exceeds income, which isn't sustainable long-term without drawing down savings or increasing debt. The breakdown table can help identify which categories take up the largest share of spending, which is usually the most effective place to look for reductions first.
Not always, especially in high cost-of-living areas or during periods of reduced income. The 20% figure is a target to work toward over time rather than a baseline everyone should expect to hit immediately. Even a smaller, consistent savings rate compounds meaningfully over years.