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How this works
The planner takes your monthly take-home pay, the amount that actually reaches your bank account, and splits it into three pots. With the 50/30/20 rule, half goes on needs, 30% on wants and 20% on savings. You can also pick 60/20/20 or 70/20/10 if your rent or bills take up more.
If you fill in what you spend now, it puts your real figures next to the targets, shows how much is left unallocated and works out your actual savings rate.
What it assumes
- The figure you enter is take-home pay after tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan.
- Paying off debt faster than the minimum counts as saving.
- Daily amounts use 365 days a year, so a month is 12 ÷ 365 of a year.
Worked example
A £35,000 salary with the 50/30/20 rule
- On a £35,000 salary in 2026/27, with no pension or student loan, take-home pay is £2,393.30 a month.
- The 50/30/20 split gives £1,196.65 for needs, £717.99 for wants and £478.66 for savings. The savings share works out at about £15.74 a day.
- Say you actually spend £1,500 on needs, £600 on wants and save £200. That leaves £93.30 a month you haven’t given a job, and your savings rate is 8.4%.
- Moving that £93.30 into savings takes you to just over 12%, which is a real step towards 20%.
Worked out with the same maths as the calculator above.
What to do next
Common questions
What counts as a need and what counts as a want?
Needs are things you’d struggle without: rent or mortgage, council tax, energy, food shopping, getting to work and minimum debt payments. Wants are the rest, such as eating out, subscriptions, holidays and hobbies.
My rent alone is more than half my pay. Is the rule useless?
No, it just needs adjusting. Try 70/20/10 to start with, then move a few percent towards savings each time your pay rises or a bill falls. Saving something regularly matters more than hitting 20% straight away.
Should I use my salary or my take-home pay?
Take-home pay. Your salary includes money that never reaches you, such as tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. The take-home pay calculator will give you the monthly figure.
Where should the savings part go?
Most people start with an emergency fund of a few months’ essential costs, then pay down expensive debt, then save for goals or invest. The emergency fund calculator can tell you how big that first pot should be.