Our free budget calculator helps you create a personalized monthly budget based on your after-tax income. Choose from popular budgeting methods like the 50/30/20 rule, 70/20/10, 60/20/20, or set your own custom percentages. Get a complete breakdown of needs (housing, food, transport, utilities, insurance), wants (entertainment, dining, shopping), and savings (emergency fund, investments, debt payoff).
Input your monthly after-tax (take-home) income.
Select 50/30/20, 70/20/10, 60/20/20, or set custom percentages.
See dollar amounts and percentages for every budget category.
Fine-tune allocations to match your lifestyle and goals.
The 50/30/20 budget rule divides your after-tax income into three categories: 50% for needs (housing, food, utilities, insurance, transportation), 30% for wants (entertainment, dining out, shopping), and 20% for savings (emergency fund, investments, debt payoff). Alternative methods like 70/20/10 allocate more to needs, while 60/20/20 balances needs and savings.
Category Amount = Monthly Income x Category Percentage / 100
Use your after-tax (take-home) income, not gross income
Housing costs should ideally stay under 30% of your gross income
Build a 3-6 month emergency fund before focusing on investments
Track actual spending for 30 days to see where money really goes
Automate savings transfers on payday so you pay yourself first
Review and adjust your budget monthly as expenses change
Create a personalized monthly budget with our free budget calculator. Enter your after-tax income and choose a budgeting method — 50/30/20, 70/20/10, 60/20/20, or custom — to see exactly how much to spend on needs, wants, and savings with detailed sub-category breakdowns.
The 50/30/20 rule is the most popular budgeting framework. It allocates 50% of your after-tax income to needs (housing, groceries, utilities, insurance, transportation, minimum debt payments), 30% to wants (entertainment, dining out, hobbies, subscriptions, shopping), and 20% to savings (emergency fund, retirement, investments, extra debt payments). This simple split works for most income levels and is recommended by financial advisors as a starting point.
Your ideal budget percentages depend on income and cost of living. At lower incomes, needs may consume 60-70% of take-home pay, leaving less for wants and savings. At higher incomes, you can often keep needs under 40% and boost savings to 30%+. Use our calculator's custom mode to find the right split for your situation. The key is that every dollar has a purpose.
If you're paid biweekly, multiply your paycheck by 26 and divide by 12 to get monthly income. For weekly pay, multiply by 52 and divide by 12. Two months per year, biweekly earners get a third paycheck — this is a great opportunity to boost savings or pay down debt. Our calculator shows weekly and biweekly breakdowns alongside monthly figures.
Data sourced from trusted institutions
All formulas verified against official standards.