Paycheck Planner
Learn more about this calculator
Most budgets start from a number you never actually see. Your salary is before taxes and before your 401(k); what you can spend is what lands in your bank. The Paycheck Planner starts there. Enter your yearly salary, your state and how you file, and it works out federal tax, Social Security and Medicare, state tax and your own retirement contribution to show your take-home pay by the month and by the paycheck.
From that it fills in a starter budget (housing, car, food, utilities, insurance, health, personal spending, fun and your 401(k)) sized to leave room to save. Every amount is marked as an estimate until you change it to what you really spend. Add your debts with their interest rates and it shows when each one is paid off and what the interest costs.
Then it checks the plan against the rules lenders and planners use: rent under 30% of gross pay (28% for a mortgage), all debt payments under 36%, and the 50/30/20 split of needs, wants and savings. A few what-ifs answer the questions people ask next: how much rent you could afford, what salary a place needs, how fast you could build an emergency fund, and what a 10% raise really puts in your bank.
What this calculator covers
Use these as a quick scope check before you rely on the output.
- •Take-home pay from your salary, state and filing status, after federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and your 401(k)
- •A starter budget sized to your pay, with every guess marked until you replace it
- •Two-earner households: each person’s Social Security and 401(k) limits counted separately
- •Your needs, wants and savings split, next to the 50/30/20 target
- •Housing and total-debt checks against the 30%, 28% and 36% rules
- •Payoff time and interest for each debt, and a one-click hand-off to the Debt-Free Planner
- •What-ifs: the rent you could afford, the salary you need, an emergency-fund timeline, a 10% raise
- •Save, name and share your plan
Frequently asked questions
How do you estimate my take-home pay?
From this year’s federal tax brackets and standard deduction for your filing status, Social Security and Medicare, one estimated rate for your state, and your own 401(k) contribution (taken before tax for a traditional account, after tax for a Roth). It does not know about health, dental or vision premiums, HSA or FSA contributions, or other payroll deductions, so a real paycheck is usually a little lower.
Does my employer’s 401(k) match come out of my paycheck?
No. You enter what you put in and what your employer adds separately. Only your share leaves your paycheck; the match still counts toward the 15% retirement goal. If your share is more than the IRS lets you put into a 401(k) for the year, the planner counts the limit instead and tells you so.
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
A common rule of thumb: about half of your pay after tax for needs (housing, food, utilities, insurance, getting to work), 30% for wants, and 20% for saving and paying down debt. The planner shows your own split next to it so you can see which part is crowding the others. It is a guide, not a test: in a high-rent city, needs often run past 50%.
How much rent can I afford on my salary?
The usual guideline is rent of no more than 30% of your gross pay: on a $60,000 salary, about $1,500 a month. Lenders look at homeowners a little more strictly, at about 28% of gross for the mortgage, property tax and insurance, and no more than 36% for all debt payments together, car loan included. The planner works out both from your own numbers.
We are married and both work. How do we enter that?
Choose Married filing jointly, enter your combined salary, then enter how much of it your spouse or partner earns. A joint return taxes the total together, but Social Security and the 401(k) limit apply to each of you, so splitting it out keeps the estimate from overcharging a two-earner household.
How is this different from the Debt-Free Planner and the Savings Goal Planner?
This is the whole-month view: where your paycheck goes and what is left over. The Debt-Free Planner takes your debts and works out the fastest order to pay them off, and the Savings Goal Planner turns one target and date into a monthly amount. The debts you enter here open in the Debt-Free Planner in one click.
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