Give every pound or dollar of take-home pay a job: the classic 50/30/20 rule aims for 50% needs, 30% wants and 20% savings. Enter your monthly take-home income, pick a rule (or set your own percentages), then list what you actually spend in each bucket. The cards compare target vs actual, show the variance in dollars and percentage points, and name the one change that would help most. Everything runs in your browser.
Percentages are of take-home (after-tax) income. In a high-rent city 50% on needs may be unrealistic — that is what the 60/20/20 and 70/20/10 rules are for. Custom percentages must add up to 100.
—
—
—
Variance is actual minus target: for needs and wants, positive means over the target; for savings, positive means ahead of target. Percentage-point variance compares your actual share of income with the rule’s share.
The 50/30/20 budget, personalised: targets in dollars, your actuals itemised, and the variance that matters.
100% free · No sign-up · No daily limits · No watermarks · Processed in your browser — files never leave your device
Turn your take-home pay into a plan: pick a split — the classic 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings, or your own — see each target in dollars, list what you actually spend item by item, and get the variance per bucket plus the one change that would help most.
On a $4,800 monthly take-home income, the 50/30/20 rule sets targets of $2,400 for needs, $1,440 for wants and $960 for savings. If your needs rows add up to $2,550 (say rent $1,500, groceries $450, utilities $250, transport $200 and insurance $150), needs are $150 over target and running at 53.125% of income — 3.13 points above the 50% target. Switching to a custom 60/20/20 split on the same income moves the targets to $2,880, $960 and $960, which may fit a high-rent city better while keeping savings at 20%.
Targets are income × percentage ÷ 100 for each bucket. Actuals are the sum of the itemised rows in that bucket; the actual percentage is actual ÷ income × 100. Variance in dollars is actual minus target, and variance in points is the actual percentage minus the target percentage — positive means over target for needs and wants, and ahead of target for savings. The bar on each card fills to actual ÷ target, capped at 100%. The “one change” insight picks the needs-or-wants bucket with the largest positive dollar variance; if neither is over, it reports the savings shortfall instead.
It is a simple budget shape popularised by Elizabeth Warren’s book All Your Worth: aim to spend about 50% of after-tax income on needs (housing, groceries, bills, transport, insurance), 30% on wants (dining out, entertainment, shopping, subscriptions) and 20% on savings and extra debt payments. It works because it is easy to check — three numbers, once a month.
Not necessarily — housing costs decide this more than discipline does. If rent in your city takes needs to 60–70%, use the 60/20/20 or 70/20/10 split, or set a custom split, and protect the savings share instead of chasing a 50% needs figure you cannot reach. The honest target you can hit beats the classic target you cannot.
Minimum payments on debts you must pay are a need. Extra payments above the minimum — money you choose to throw at a balance to clear it faster — belong in savings, alongside emergency-fund and investing rows. That split keeps the needs bucket honest about what is truly fixed.
It is the gap between your actual share of income and the target share, in percentage points. Needs at 53.125% of a $4,800 income against a 50% target is +3.13 points (and +$150). Points let you compare buckets of different sizes fairly; dollars tell you what fixing it is worth.
The planner warns you and still shows the targets using your numbers as entered — so the targets will not add up to your income until the split totals 100%. Adjust any of the three percentages until the warning clears.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser on the numbers you type; nothing is sent to or stored on the server.
What is missing, broken, or could be better on this tool? Tell us — we read every suggestion.
✅ Thanks — your suggestion has been received. Suggestions like yours shape what we build next.