Smart Budget Tuner
Enter your take-home pay and what you actually spend. This tool scores your current split against a 50/30/20-style target (needs / wants / savings), then gives you sliders to rebalance — with concrete trade-off suggestions when savings fall short.
Educational tool only — not professional financial advice. This models your numbers against a common budgeting framework; it doesn't know your obligations, debts, or goals. Treat targets as starting points, not prescriptions.
Step 1 — Your real numbers
Use a typical month. Take-home pay = what actually lands in your account after taxes. Leave categories at 0 if they don't apply.
Step 2 — Tune it with sliders
Drag any slider to change that category's planned amount. Everything below updates live: your split, your score, and trade-off ideas.
Your targets (% of take-home pay)
The classic 50/30/20 is a starting point — adjust to fit your life. The three must add to 100%.
Sliders
Trade-off ideas
Your finalized monthly budget
Go Deeper
For the full budgeting system — zero-based budgets, sinking funds, and killing lifestyle creep — read Budgeting Made Simple by Kimani Upshur, M.Ed.