Calculator
50/30/20 Budget Calculator
The 50/30/20 rule is one of the simplest budgeting frameworks: spend 50% of your take-home pay on needs, 30% on wants, and put 20% towards savings and debt repayment. This calculator turns the rule into concrete rupee targets, then compares them with what you actually spend — so you get a clear diagnosis, a budget health estimate, and a short action plan, not just three percentages. It also offers India-aware modes (metro, high-savings, debt-recovery, low-income, custom) because rising rent and family costs make a strict 50% needs limit hard for many households.
In shortA 50/30/20 budget calculator divides your monthly take-home income into 50% for needs, 30% for wants, and 20% for savings or debt repayment. On ₹80,000 that is ₹40,000 needs, ₹24,000 wants and ₹16,000 savings. This page also compares your actual spending with the recommended split and gives a budget health estimate.
Net pay after tax and PF — the amount that reaches your bank account. Use take-home, not CTC.
Pick a split. Metro and low-income modes allow higher needs; high-savings and debt-recovery push more to the 20% bucket.
Rent/EMI, groceries, utilities, transport, insurance, fees, medicines. Leave 0 to skip the comparison.
Dining out, shopping, OTT/subscriptions, travel, gadgets, entertainment.
Emergency fund, SIPs, PPF/EPF/NPS, sinking funds, goals.
Advanced assumptions
Extra loan prepayment or debt payoff you track separately. Counted in the savings/debt bucket.
Recommended vs your spending
- Needs
- Wants
- Savings / debt
View yearly breakdown
| Split | Needs | Wants | Savings / debt | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended | ₹40,000 | ₹24,000 | ₹16,000 | ₹80,000 |
| Your spending | ₹44,000 | ₹24,000 | ₹12,000 | ₹80,000 |
Good but needs tuning (80/100). Your needs are ₹4,000 above the recommended limit. Needs over target: review rent/EMI, utilities, groceries, transport and insurance first — fixed costs are harder to cut, so optimise those before lifestyle. At the recommended ₹16,000/month saved, that is ₹1,92,000 in a year and ₹9,60,000 over 5 years (before any investment returns). This is an educational estimate, not a credit score or financial advice.
What your result means
- A negative gap on a bucket means you overshot it that month — Needs creeping past 50% is the most common culprit.
- The 20% savings figure is a floor, not a ceiling; raise it whenever a salary hike lands before lifestyle catches up.
- Apply the split to take-home pay, and in high-rent metros expect Needs to run above 50% — compensate by trimming Wants, not Savings.
How to use this calculator
- Enter your monthly take-home pay — net salary after tax and PF, not your CTC.
- Pick a budget rule. Use Metro or Low-income if rent and essentials run high; High-savings or Debt-recovery to push more to the 20% bucket; Custom to set your own ratio.
- Enter your actual needs, wants and savings to compare them against the targets.
- Read the budget health estimate and the biggest issue detected, then follow the action plan.
- Open “Advanced assumptions” to track separate debt repayment or set custom percentages.
The formula
For the selected mode: Needs = Income × needs%, Wants = Income × wants%, Savings/Debt = Income × savings%. Standard mode = 50% / 30% / 20%, which always totals 100% of take-home pay. Gap = actual − recommended (positive = over target). Custom ratios must total 100%.
Worked example
On a take-home income of ₹80,000 with the standard rule: needs target = ₹40,000, wants target = ₹24,000, savings/debt target = ₹16,000. Say your actual spending is ₹44,000 needs, ₹24,000 wants and ₹12,000 savings. Needs are ₹4,000 over target and savings ₹4,000 under, wants are on track, and nothing is unallocated — a budget health estimate of about 80/100 ("good but needs tuning"). The fix: hold savings at the target and pull the ₹4,000 from wants, not from your SIPs.
Methodology
Recommended targets = monthly take-home income × the ratio for the selected mode (Standard 50/30/20, Metro 60/20/20, High-savings 40/20/40, Debt-recovery 50/20/30, Low-income 65/15/20, or a custom ratio you set). Your actual needs, wants and the savings/debt bucket are compared against those targets to produce per-category gaps, a monthly surplus or shortfall, and a 0–100 budget-health estimate that starts at 100 and deducts points for needs/wants overspending, a savings shortfall, or spending above income (with a small reward for saving above target). Custom ratios are validated to total 100%. Every figure on the page — cards, comparison chart and table, diagnosis and example — comes from this one engine. It does not verify real bank data, model inflation, or assume investment returns.
Why results differ across calculators
- High rent or a large home-loan EMI pushes needs well above 50% in metros.
- Family responsibilities, school fees and medical costs raise the essentials floor.
- Debt repayment may need a bigger bucket than 20% for a while.
- Low or irregular/business income makes a strict percentage split harder to hold month to month.
- City cost differences and an emergency-fund gap change how much should go to needs vs savings.
When to use it
- Diagnosing whether your rent and lifestyle are out of proportion to your income.
- Comparing the standard rule against a metro or high-savings split for your city.
- Setting a first budget after a raise so the extra income is split deliberately.
- Checking, before a big commitment, whether your savings target still survives.