Budget Calculator with Savings Rate

What this calculator answers

How much of your income is left each month once your bills and the money you set aside are paid, and what share of your income you save. Enter each line at the frequency you actually pay or receive it (groceries every week, a paycheck every two weeks, car insurance each quarter), and the calculator converts everything to monthly and yearly amounts, then compares your split with the 50/30/20 rule.

“Savings rate” here means the share of your income you save, not the interest rate on a savings account.

How to make a monthly budget with this calculator

1. Income entered as: choose take-home pay (what reaches your bank account) or gross pay (before tax). Take-home is simpler; gross works if you also enter your taxes as lines.
2. Income: one row per source, such as a paycheck, side work, benefits or child support, with its amount and how often it arrives. Under each amount you’ll see its monthly and yearly equivalent. If an income changes from month to month, use your average over the last 6 to 12 months.
3. Pre-tax retirement savings (take-home pay only, optional): 401(k) or 403(b) money taken out of your paycheck before you receive it. It isn’t part of your take-home pay, but it is saving, so the savings rates count it.
4. Expenses and savings: one row per bill or goal, with its amount and frequency. Category groups the rows in the breakdown. Counts as sorts each row into Need, Want or Savings or investing for the 50/30/20 check; it is hidden for the Taxes category. Money you move to savings is a row too, counted as savings or investing.
5. Compare with: the 50/30/20 rule, or your own split (three percentages that add up to 100%).

Add up to 100 rows, duplicate a row, or paste rows copied from a spreadsheet with Paste rows. The Try buttons load four cases worked through below: Gross pay + taxes, A short month, Zero-based and Pre-tax 401(k). To test a change, press Save for comparison, edit the budget and save again: each saved scenario shows how much more or less is left over. If the budget has a debt payment line and money left over, Continue in the Debt Snowball vs. Avalanche Calculator carries that amount over as the extra above your minimums.

Budgeting with weekly or bi-weekly paychecks

Multiply each amount by the number of times it’s paid in a year, then divide by 12. A paycheck every two weeks is not the same as a paycheck twice a month: there are 26 of the first and 24 of the second.

With 26 paychecks, 10 months have two paydays and 2 months have three. The monthly figure averages all 26: $2,150 every two weeks is $2,150 × 26 ÷ 12 = $4,658.33 a month. If you plan each month on two paychecks ($4,300.00), the two extra paychecks add $4,300.00 a year on top. A year is 52 weeks plus a day or two, so now and then a calendar year holds 27 paydays. The Pay periods tab under the results shows the whole budget per week, per two weeks and per half month, which answers “how much should I save from each paycheck?”

Worked example: a renter paid $2,150 every two weeks

Take-home pay of $2,150 every two weeks plus $450 a month from tutoring. The expenses:

1. Income: $2,150 × 26 + $450 × 12 = $61,300.00 a year, or $5,108.33 a month.
2. Needs: $1,625 × 12 + $285 × 12 + $140 × 52 + $505 × 12 + $540 × 4 + $210 × 12 = $40,940.00 a year ($3,411.67 a month). Wants: $4,620.00 a year ($385.00 a month). Savings: $8,200.00 a year ($683.33 a month).
3. Left over: $61,300.00 − $53,760.00 = $7,540.00 a year, or $628.33 a month.
4. Planned savings rate: $8,200.00 ÷ $61,300.00 = 13.38%. Surplus rate: $7,540.00 ÷ $61,300.00 = 12.3%. Savings rate if the surplus is saved too: ($8,200.00 + $7,540.00) ÷ $61,300.00 = 25.68%.
5. Against 50/30/20: needs take 66.8% of take-home pay ($857.50 a month over the rule’s $2,554.17), wants 7.5% ($1,147.50 under $1,532.50) and savings 13.4% ($338.33 under $1,021.67). Saving the $628.33 left over would bring savings to 25.7%.

The car insurance and gift lines come due only a few times a year, so $280.00 a month set aside for them keeps those bills from landing on one paycheck.

How to calculate your savings rate (and what counts as savings)

Divide what you save by your income. This calculator splits that into two parts, so you can see what is planned and what is merely unspent:

• $I$ is your income for the year (take-home or gross, as you chose), plus pre-tax savings if you enter them.
• $S$ is the total of the lines that count as savings or investing (plus pre-tax savings, if you enter them).
• $L$ is what’s left over: $L = I - S - E$, where $E$ is needs, wants and any taxes you entered.

So the savings rate is the share of income you don’t spend, $1 - E \div I$. It is the same idea as the national personal saving rate, which the Bureau of Economic Analysis defines as personal saving as a percentage of after-tax income. It becomes negative when needs, wants and taxes alone come to more than income.

What counts as savings is up to you, and the steps under the result list the lines used. Emergency fund deposits and IRA or brokerage contributions count once you mark them as savings or investing. Extra payments above a debt’s minimum can count too (the 50/30/20 guideline puts them in the 20%): set that line’s Counts as to savings or investing. Minimum payments are needs. Your employer’s 401(k) match isn’t counted, because it isn’t part of your income.

Pre-tax savings don’t appear in take-home pay, so a take-home budget would miss them. Enter them in Pre-tax retirement savings and they count on both sides: (savings + pre-tax) ÷ (income + pre-tax). The Pre-tax 401(k) button adds $180 every two weeks to the example, which is $4,680.00 a year ($390.00 a month). The planned savings rate rises to 19.52% and the savings rate to 30.95%, while the take-home budget and its $628.33 left over stay the same.

Take-home pay or gross income: which should you budget from?

Budget from take-home pay if you can. It is the net income you actually spend and save from, and the income budgeting guides tell you to start with.

Budget from gross pay when you want the whole picture, including taxes and payroll deductions. Enter gross pay as income and add each tax as a line in the Taxes category. Taxes then stay out of needs and wants, the 50/30/20 check uses income after taxes, and the rates become shares of gross pay, so they read lower than the same savings would on take-home pay. Enter 401(k) deferrals as ordinary savings lines here, since they come out of gross pay. The Gross pay + taxes button shows this: a $2,975 paycheck every two weeks ($77,350.00 a year) plus tutoring, with $1,349.83 a month of tax lines and a 401(k) line. That leaves $741.00 a month, a savings rate of 25.37% of gross pay, and $5,546.00 a month after taxes for the 50/30/20 check.

The calculator warns about the two usual slips: take-home pay with tax lines (taxes subtracted twice) and gross pay with none.

What is the 50/30/20 rule, and how does your budget compare?

It is a guideline for splitting income after tax: about half goes to needs, 30% to wants, and the last 20% to savings and to paying down debt beyond the minimums. Needs are the basics: rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, the car, insurance, health care, child care that lets you work, and minimum debt payments. Wants are things you could live without, such as restaurant meals, streaming, trips and hobbies. The 20% covers retirement, investments, an emergency fund and extra debt payments.

Treat it as one rule of thumb, not a target you must hit. When rent is high, needs can take more than half: the example’s needs are 66.8%, mostly rent. The chart and table show your three shares next to the rule, the amounts the rule would give on your income, and the difference. If another split fits your situation better, choose My own split and enter it. With $10,000 a month of take-home pay, for example, the rule’s amounts are $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, and the example’s expenses would leave $5,520.00 a month unassigned.

If your budget shows a deficit

A budget below zero means you’re spending and planning to save more than you earn. The headline then says how much you’re short each month, and the calculator names your three largest categories, since that is where a change moves the total most.

The A short month button shows it: without the tutoring income and with rent of $1,950, the budget is short $146.67 a month ($1,760.00 a year). The largest categories are housing ($1,950.00 a month), food ($826.67) and savings and investing ($683.33). The savings rate falls to 11.52%, although 14.67% is planned, because the shortfall eats into the planned savings. The ways out are the same in any budget: spend less on some lines, save less for now, or bring in more income. The If you spent less on wants table shows what trimming wants alone would do.

Reading the result

• Left over each month (or Short each month) is income minus every expense and savings line, with its yearly total underneath. $0.00 means every dollar is assigned, a zero-based budget. The Zero-based button puts the example’s $7,540 yearly surplus into a brokerage line: the budget shows $0.00 left over, and the savings rate is all planned, still 25.68%.
• The six tiles give income, spending (needs plus wants) and planned savings a month, then the savings rate, planned savings rate and surplus rate, each saying what it is a share of.
• How this was calculated shows each total as amounts × payments a year, then every rate with your numbers, and a spreadsheet formula that gives the same monthly total.
• Your budget next to the 50/30/20 rule compares your needs, wants and savings with the rule or your split, as a chart and a table you can download.
• Budget breakdown has three tabs. Categories shows where your income goes, with a table of each category’s monthly and yearly total. Lines lists every row as a monthly and yearly amount; download it as CSV to keep a copy in a spreadsheet. Pay periods divides the budget by pay period: in the example, each two-week period has $315.38 of planned savings and $290.00 left over.
• If you spent less on wants repeats the calculation with every want line cut by 10% to 50%. In the example, cutting wants by 10% leaves $38.50 more each month and lifts the savings rate to 26.43%.

Your budget stays on this device

Everything is calculated in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere. This page has no share link, so your budget never ends up in a web address. Save on this device keeps the budget in this browser’s local storage, but only when you press it. Load saved budget brings it back later. Delete saved data removes it, and so does clearing this site’s data in your browser. Another browser or device can’t see it. To keep a copy elsewhere, use Copy results or download the CSV from the Lines tab.

Assumptions and limitations

• Monthly figures are averages. Quarterly and yearly bills and the months with an extra paycheck are spread evenly over the year, but real months differ, so keep a cushion for the months when several bills fall together.
• Taxes are not calculated. With gross pay, the Taxes lines are whatever you enter.
• One typical year: no raises, inflation, interest or investment growth.
• Employer matching contributions are not included.
• The result is an educational estimate from the numbers you enter, not financial advice.

Common mistakes

• Treating bi-weekly pay as twice a month. $1,800 every two weeks is $3,900.00 a month, not $3,600.00. Choose “Every 2 weeks,” and the conversion is exact.
• Subtracting taxes from take-home pay. Net pay already has them taken out. Use tax lines only with gross pay.
• Entering a 401(k) deduction as a savings line on take-home pay. It never reached your account, so it would shrink what’s left over by money you didn’t receive. Use Pre-tax retirement savings instead.
• Leaving out yearly and quarterly bills. Car insurance, registration, gifts and subscriptions paid once a year belong in the budget at their own frequency, or they arrive as surprises.
• Counting what’s left over as saved. Many people treat whatever is left after the bills as spending money. The planned savings rate shows what you have actually set aside.
• Comparing savings rates without saying what they are a share of. 20% of gross pay and 20% of take-home pay are different amounts. The result always names its base.