The 50/30/20 budget calculator
Enter your monthly take-home income — see exactly what to spend and save
Needs
$2,000
per month · ≈ $462/week
- •Rent or mortgage
- •Groceries
- •Utilities & phone
- •Transport & fuel
- •Insurance & minimum debt payments
Wants
$1,200
per month · ≈ $277/week
- •Dining out & coffee
- •Subscriptions & streaming
- •Shopping
- •Travel & hobbies
- •Entertainment
Savings & Debt
$800
per month · ≈ $185/week
- •Emergency fund
- •Savings goals
- •Investments & retirement
- •Extra debt payments
Make the 20% automatic
Dibba tracks your spending from banking SMS and Apple Pay, sorts needs from wants with AI, and keeps your savings goals on pace — no spreadsheets.
🪽 Free to start · No bank login · Works worldwide
Put your savings share to work
Budgeting guide
How the 50/30/20 rule works
The 50/30/20 rule splits your after-tax income into three buckets: half for needs, 30% for wants, and 20% for savings and extra debt payments. Popularized by Elizabeth Warren in All Your Worth, it has outlived hundreds of more complicated systems for one reason — it's simple enough to follow on a normal, busy month.
Needs: the 50%
Needs are costs you can't reasonably cancel: housing, groceries, utilities, insurance, transport, and minimum debt payments. If this bucket overflows — common in expensive cities — switch to the 60/30/10 preset above and work back toward 50 over time.
Wants: the 30%
Restaurants, subscriptions, shopping, trips. This bucket isn't the enemy — it's what makes the budget sustainable. The rule just puts a ceiling on it, so a good month for you is still a good month for your goals.
Savings: the 20% that builds your future
Emergency fund first, then savings goals and investments, then extra debt payments beyond minimums. At $4,000 of monthly take-home, that's $800 a month — $9,600 a year working for you.
The hard part is tracking — so automate it
Most budgets fail at the bookkeeping stage, not the math stage. Dibba tracks every expense automatically from banking SMS and Apple Pay, categorizes it with AI, and shows how your real month compares to your plan — no bank login, no manual entry.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 50/30/20 budget rule?+−
A simple way to split your after-tax income: 50% to needs (housing, food, utilities), 30% to wants (dining out, subscriptions, travel), and 20% to savings and extra debt payments. It was popularized by Elizabeth Warren in the book 'All Your Worth' and works because it's easy enough to actually stick to.
Is 50/30/20 based on gross or after-tax income?+−
After-tax (take-home) income — the money that actually lands in your account. If you have automatic deductions like a retirement plan, you can count those toward the 20% savings share.
What counts as a need vs a want?+−
A need is something you can't reasonably cut: rent, groceries, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments, commuting. A want is everything you'd survive without: restaurants, streaming, shopping, vacations. Honest sorting is the whole game — a nicer apartment than you need is partly a want.
What if my rent alone is more than 50%?+−
Common in expensive cities. Switch to the 60/30/10 preset, or treat the rule as a direction instead of a law: shrink wants before savings, and revisit housing when your lease allows. The goal is a split you can repeat every month, not a perfect ratio.
How do I actually stick to the 50/30/20 budget?+−
Automation beats willpower. Dibba tracks every expense automatically from banking SMS and Apple Pay, categorizes it with AI, and shows how your real spending compares to your plan — so you see drift the week it happens, not at the end of the month.