Budget Calculator

A budget calculator helps you split your monthly income across expense categories and see, at a glance, whether your spending leaves room to save. Enter your in-hand income and each expense; the tool instantly shows your total spending, your surplus or deficit, and your savings rate — then compares it against the well-known 50/30/20 benchmark. Building this habit is the single biggest step towards an emergency fund, clearing high-interest EMIs, or growing a long-term investment corpus.

Who is this for?

Salaried professionals trying to live below their means, young earners setting up their first budget, families planning around school fees and EMIs, and freelancers smoothing out an irregular income. If you have ever reached month-end wondering where your salary went, this tool turns a vague worry into clear numbers you can act on.

The 50/30/20 rule

The 50/30/20 rule, popularised by US Senator Elizabeth Warren, is a simple way to divide take-home pay into three buckets:

• 50% → Needs — rent or home-loan EMI, groceries, utilities, transport, insurance
• 30% → Wants — dining out, OTT subscriptions, shopping, hobbies, travel
• 20% → Savings & debt repayment — SIPs, recurring deposits, extra loan prepayments

It is a starting target to steer by, not a strict law — the right split depends on your city, your stage of life, and your goals.

How it works — the exact formula

The maths behind the tool is deliberately simple, so you can sanity-check it yourself:

Total Expenses = sum of every category amount

Balance (Surplus / Deficit) = Monthly Income − Total Expenses

Savings Rate = (Income − Expenses) ÷ Income × 100

A positive balance is a surplus you can route to savings; a negative balance is a deficit you are funding from past savings or borrowing. Your savings rate is the share of income you keep — the number that compounds your wealth over time.

Worked example

On a take-home salary of ₹60,000 a month, the 50/30/20 targets are needs ₹60,000 × 0.50 = ₹30,000, wants ₹60,000 × 0.30 = ₹18,000, and savings ₹60,000 × 0.20 = ₹12,000. If your actual expenses add up to ₹50,000, your surplus is ₹60,000 − ₹50,000 = ₹10,000 and your savings rate is (10,000 ÷ 60,000) × 100 = 16.7% — close to target, with a little room to push towards 20%.

Tips for an Indian budget

Always budget on in-hand pay, the amount left after PF, professional tax, and TDS — not your CTC, which overstates what you can actually spend. Automate the savings bucket with a SIP or recurring deposit on salary day so it leaves your account before you can spend it — paying yourself first is far more effective than saving whatever is left over. And don't forget lumpy annual costs — insurance premiums, school fees, festival and gifting spends, vehicle servicing, home maintenance: divide each yearly cost by 12 and set that aside every month so it never becomes a shock.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting on CTC, not in-hand — your spendable money is what hits the bank after deductions.
• Ignoring annual expenses — insurance, fees and festivals derail an otherwise tidy monthly plan.
• Saving last, not first — leftover-based saving rarely happens; automate it on salary day.
• Mislabelling wants as needs — a phone is a need; the newest flagship is a want. Be honest in the split.

India notes

In high-rent metros like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi, rent or EMI alone can exceed 50% of take-home pay, so a textbook 50/30/20 split may be unrealistic at first — treat it as a direction to move towards rather than a pass/fail test. Even shifting from 0% to 5% savings is real progress. Once you have a stable surplus, build a 3–6 month emergency fund before chasing higher-return investments. To see how your 20% savings bucket could grow over time, try the savings calculator. This is a planning aid, not financial advice.