CalcStack — free, instant, no signup. The interactive calculator loads automatically.
A budget you can hold in your head beats one you abandon in a spreadsheet.
The 50/30/20 rule divides after-tax income into needs (50%), wants (30%), and savings including extra debt payoff (20%) — simple enough to survive contact with real life. This calculator applies the rule to your actual income, offers variants for high-cost cities and survival mode, and shows exactly which bucket is breaking and by how much, so you fix the right problem.
People use it the day they decide to "get serious about budgeting" — it converts one income number into three targets in ten seconds, then shows which bucket is actually breaking. The over/under view ends the latte debate: if needs are $400 over, the problem is housing, not coffee.
Split after-tax income: 50% needs (housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum payments), 30% wants (dining out, streaming, travel), 20% savings and extra debt payoff. On $5,000 take-home that is $2,500 / $1,500 / $1,000 — about $577 a week in the needs bucket. It comes from Elizabeth Warren's book All Your Worth.
That is structural, not behavioral — housing or a car payment is eating the budget, and no skipped subscription fixes a bucket $400 over target. Options are big levers (cheaper housing, refinancing, a second income) or a temporary rule change: 60/20/20 for high-cost cities, 70/20/10 in survival mode, with a date to climb back.
Minimum payments count as needs — they are not optional. Extra payments beyond the minimum count in the 20% bucket, because every extra dollar of principal is functionally savings at the debt's interest rate. Retirement contributions count too, including anything already withheld from your paycheck.