50/30/20 budget calculator
Split your take-home pay the 50/30/20 way: half for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings and paying down debt. A common rule of thumb, not a rule you have to follow. No sign-up.
By Travis Haggar. I build Openbox Money. I'm not a financial adviser.
Drafted with AI help. Updated .
Sources: Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, All Your Worth (Free Press, 2005); BLS, Consumer Expenditures in 2025 (Oct 29, 2026); BLS, consumer unit spending 2021-2025 table (Excel). Not financial advice. Spot a mistake? support@openboxmoney.com
Example: $4,000 take-home a month. Type your own above.
| Share | A month |
|---|---|
| 50% needsHousing, groceries, utilities, insurance, getting to work, minimum debt payments | $2,000 |
| 30% wantsEating out, shopping, trips, streaming, hobbies | $1,200 |
| 20% savings and debt payoffSaving, and paying debt down beyond the minimums | $800 |
Compare with what you spend now
Optional. Use the same period as your pay, and count each dollar in one place only.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent, saved or put in the page address.
How it works
The split is usually credited to Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's 2005 book All Your Worth: 50% of after-tax pay for must-haves, 30% for wants and 20% for savings. It's a starting point for sorting spending, not a measure of whether a budget is right.
Amounts are worked out to the cent, and the three parts always add back up to the pay you typed: a leftover cent goes to the share it's closest to. Paychecks become months as an average: paid every 2 weeks, a month counts as 26 ÷ 12 paychecks.
What counts as a need is yours to decide. Rent or a mortgage, groceries, utilities, insurance and minimum debt payments are typical needs; eating out, shopping and trips are typical wants.
What U.S. households spent in 2025
The average household spent $81,905 in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Its 8 largest categories:
| Category | A year | Share of spending |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $27,790 | 33.9% |
| Transportation | $13,492 | 16.5% |
| Food, at home and away | $10,633 | 13.0% |
| Personal insurance and pensions(mostly Social Security and retirement contributions) | $10,175 | 12.4% |
| Healthcare | $6,470 | 7.9% |
| Entertainment | $4,084 | 5.0% |
| Cash contributions(money given outside the household, like support payments and donations) | $2,237 | 2.7% |
| Apparel and services | $2,010 | 2.5% |
Housing alone was about a third of spending. These are shares of what households spent, not of their take-home pay, and the categories don't line up with needs and wants: food includes eating out, and transportation includes buying cars. The BLS doesn't publish average after-tax income for 2025, so we don't convert them. Every category, the change since 2024 and a CSV.
By our arithmetic, spending was 73.9% of average income before taxes ($81,905 of $110,847). A “household” here is the BLS's consumer unit: people who live together and share their major expenses.
Want to line bills up with paydays? The paycheck budget shows what each paycheck has to cover. More free tools.