Free · 50/30/20 Guideline · No Signup
Personal Budget CalculatorEnter your pay and bills. See your surplus, your real split, and the three levers that move it most.
Enter your take-home pay above to see your budget.
Monthly surplus or shortfall
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12-month savings at this rate
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| 50/30/20 guideline | Your actual split |
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| Needs | calculating... | calculating... |
| Wants | calculating... | calculating... |
| Savings | calculating... | calculating... |
Your three biggest levers
Run the numbers above to see your own budget.
This calculator does not tell you what to cut. The 50/30/20 guideline (roughly 50% of take-home pay on needs, 30% on wants, 20% on savings) is a starting point popularized in personal-finance writing, not a rule everyone can hit right away. Housing, groceries, and childcare are treated as needs here; subscriptions and everything else are treated as wants; your own life may draw that line differently. Want to see what your savings goal could grow into if invested rather than saved in cash? Try the Compound Interest Calculator. Curious what a dollar buys compared to a year ago? Try the Inflation Calculator.
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How this is calculated
Reviewed by the FigureNerd small-business team. Built around the 50/30/20 budgeting guideline, with grocery and gas context sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Energy Information Administration. About FigureNerd →
- Needs are housing, utilities, groceries, gas and transport, insurance, debt payments, and childcare, added together. Wants are subscriptions and everything else, added together. Savings is your entered monthly savings goal.
- Surplus or shortfall is your take-home pay minus needs, minus wants, minus your savings goal. A positive number means your pay covers all of it with room left over; a negative number means it does not.
- The 50/30/20 guideline targets 50% of take-home pay on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings. Your actual split is each bucket's total divided by your take-home pay. This is a widely used personal-finance guideline, not a government figure, and not the only reasonable way to budget.
- Three biggest levers ranks your entered categories (housing, groceries, gas and transport, subscriptions, everything else, debt payments) from largest to smallest dollar amount, and shows what a 10% cut to each would free up per month, as a starting point for where a change would matter most.
- 12-month savings projection is your entered monthly savings goal multiplied by 12, with no investment return assumed. If you plan to invest rather than hold it in cash, see the Compound Interest Calculator for growth over time.
- Grocery note: BLS CPI-U Food at Home index (series CUUR0000SAF11) rose from 314.608 in August 2025 to 321.500 in August 2026, up 2.19% year over year. Source: BLS public data API, series CUUR0000SAF11, opened 2026-09-25. Release: BLS CPI news release for August 2026 (USDL-26-1496), released 2026-09-11.
- Gas note: U.S. average regular gasoline price was $4.478 per gallon for the week of September 21, 2026. Source: EIA weekly retail gasoline and diesel prices, opened 2026-09-25.
- This is an educational estimation tool, not financial advice. Your own numbers and priorities may reasonably differ from the guideline used here.
Common questions
What is the 50/30/20 budget rule?
A guideline that suggests aiming for roughly 50% of take-home pay on needs (housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum debt payments), 30% on wants (subscriptions, dining out, everything discretionary), and 20% toward savings or extra debt payoff. It is a starting point, not a rule everyone can hit right away, and this calculator shows your own split next to it rather than telling you what to do.
Why does groceries and gas show a national average note?
So you can see how your own number compares to what prices are doing nationally right now, sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Energy Information Administration rather than a guess. Your own local prices may run higher or lower than the national figure.
What counts as a need versus a want in this calculator?
Housing, utilities, groceries, gas and transport, insurance, debt payments, and childcare are treated as needs. Subscriptions and everything else are treated as wants. Your own life may draw that line differently; the categories here are a starting frame, not a judgment.
Is this calculator a substitute for a financial advisor?
No. It is an educational estimation tool. It may help you see where your money is going and what changing might do to your numbers, but it does not know your full financial picture. Talk to a licensed financial professional for advice specific to your situation.