50/30/20 calculator
The 50/30/20 rule splits take-home pay into half for needs, 30 percent for wants and 20 percent for savings and paying down debt. Enter your pay, or both partners' pay, and see the three amounts and how soon the savings build an emergency fund.
Needs, 50%
Wants, 30%
Savings, 20%
Three months of needs is $6,300.00. Putting the whole 20% toward it gets there in 8 months.
Runs entirely in your browser, the savings line on the Tavala app's own calculators. Nothing you type is sent or kept.
Where the rule comes from, and what goes where
The split was popularized by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their 2005 book All Your Worth. The CFPB's spending-rule worksheet puts it plainly: half of take-home pay to needs, 20 percent to savings and debt payments, and no more than 30 percent to wants. Needs are rent or the mortgage, food, clothing, transport, utilities and child care; savings include credit card payments above the minimum, retirement and the emergency fund.
One income
Take-home pay of $4,200 a month splits exactly like this:
| Part | A month | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Needs, 50% | $2,100.00 | $25,200.00 |
| Wants, 30% | $1,260.00 | $15,120.00 |
| Savings, 20% | $840.00 | $10,080.00 |
Three months of needs is $6,300.00, and the whole $840.00 a month gets there in 8 months from nothing. The calculator works this out on the same savings-goal arithmetic as the Tavala app.
Two incomes
Take-home pays of $5,400 and $3,100. Pooled, the household's $8,500.00 splits into $4,250.00 for needs, $2,550.00 for wants and $1,700.00 for savings. Each on their own, the first partner's needs are $2,700.00 and the second's $1,550.00: the same total, but if the rent is shared evenly, the partner who earns less pays a larger share of their pay for it. That is the case for splitting shared bills by income. When one partner is paid in another currency, the calculator converts that pay at the rate you type before splitting.
What it assumes
Pay that is the same each month. With irregular pay, use a low month as the base. The rule is a starting point, not advice about your own budget.
Words this page uses
- Take-home pay
- What arrives after tax and payroll deductions: the 50/30/20 rule splits this, not the salary before tax.
- Needs
- What you must pay to live and work: housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, transport, the minimum payments on debts.
- Wants
- What you could live without: eating out, travel, hobbies, most subscriptions.
- Savings
- The emergency fund, retirement, other goals, and debt payments above the minimum.
- Emergency fund
- Cash kept for a lost job or a broken boiler, often three to six months of needs.
Questions
- Who came up with the 50/30/20 rule?
- It was popularized by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their 2005 book All Your Worth, where the three parts are called must-haves, wants and savings. The CFPB's worksheet calls it the 50/20/30 rule.
- Is 50/30/20 based on gross or net income?
- On take-home pay, after taxes. The CFPB's worksheet applies 50 percent of take-home pay to needs, 20 percent to savings and debt payments and no more than 30 percent to wants.
- What if my needs are more than 50 percent?
- In a high-rent city they often are. Treat 50 percent as a direction, not a rule: take the difference from wants first, keep some savings, and look at the biggest need, usually housing.
- How does 50/30/20 work for a couple?
- Pooled, both take-home pays are added and split once. Separately, each partner splits their own. The household totals are the same; what changes is who pays for the needs. Splitting shared bills by income is another way, with its own calculator.
Budget the 50 and the 30 in Tavala
The rule gives three numbers. The Tavala app keeps them: a budget per category that counts down as you spend, bills that feed safe to spend, and a savings goal, in any currency, offline and without a bank.
Go further
- Split bills by incomeA fair share of shared bills for two incomes.
- Budgeting apps for couplesThe honest list, by how you keep your money.
- Separate accounts, shared budgetHow couples budget without merging money.
- Set a monthly budgetOpen the Budgets tab, pick Everything or one category, enter a monthly limit and tap Add budget. Budgets count everyday spending in your main currency.
- Save toward a goalCreate a savings goal with a target, fill it with transfers from your wallets and follow the progress. Goals count in net worth but not in What's Left.
- Safe to spend and the next 30 daysSafe to spend is the money in your spending wallets minus the recurring bills due before your next income, or in the next 30 days. It never goes below zero.
Start with what you spent today.
There is no account to create and no card to enter. Pick your currency, add what you paid, and Home shows what is left.