Budget Planner

The 50/30/20 rule

Popularized by Senator Elizabeth Warren, the 50/30/20 rule is a simple framework for dividing your take-home (after-tax) income into three buckets:

• 50% Needs — essentials you can't easily avoid: rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, transportation, insurance, and minimum debt payments.
• 30% Wants — lifestyle spending: dining out, entertainment, subscriptions, hobbies, travel, and shopping.
• 20% Savings & Debt — building your future: emergency fund, retirement contributions, investments, and extra debt payoff beyond the minimums.

Using this planner

1. Enter your monthly take-home income and pick a currency.
2. Edit the default categories or add your own with the Add category button. Rename a category by typing in its label.
3. The colored bar and the three summary cards update instantly, comparing your actual allocation to the 50/30/20 targets.
4. Use Auto-fill from 50/30/20 targets to distribute your income across the categories in each group proportionally.

Reading the results

• A green pill means the group is at or under its target — good for needs and wants, and it means you're saving at least the target for savings.
• A red pill means you're over the target for that group.
• Unallocated is any income you haven't assigned yet — ideally zero (a "zero-based" budget) or added to savings.

You can embed this util on your own site as a widget. Adding ?embed=1 to the URL loads a compact version with just the tool itself; no header, menu, or documentation. Paste this snippet into your HTML:

Copy snippet Adjust the height to taste.