70 20 10 Rule Money Calculator NZ
This 70/20/10 rule calculator splits your take-home pay into the three buckets the rule is built on: 70 percent for living costs, 20 percent for savings and investing, and 10 percent for extra debt repayments or giving. Enter what actually lands in your bank account each pay, choose whether that is weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and the calculator shows the dollar amount for each bucket plus what the savings bucket adds up to over a full year. The living bucket covers everything it costs to run your life: rent or mortgage payments, groceries, power, insurance, transport, subscriptions and everyday spending. The 20 percent bucket is money for your future, whether that is an emergency fund, KiwiSaver top-ups, managed funds or shares. The final 10 percent goes to paying down debt faster than the minimum, or to charity and family support if you are debt free. The rule is popular because it is simple enough to run on autopilot: set up automatic transfers on payday and the budgeting is done before you can spend it. It suits New Zealand households whose essential costs are too high for stricter rules like 50/30/20, while still putting a solid share of every pay toward getting ahead.
Use the amount that reaches your bank account after tax, ACC, KiwiSaver and student loan deductions.
Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. The rule is a guideline: if your rent or mortgage pushes living costs past 70 percent, trim the other buckets rather than abandoning them.
How it works
The maths is deliberately simple, which is the point of the rule. The calculator multiplies your take-home pay by 0.70 for the living bucket, 0.20 for the savings and investing bucket, and 0.10 for the debt or giving bucket, then rounds each figure to the nearest dollar. The yearly savings figure multiplies the 20 percent bucket by the number of pays in a year: 52 for weekly, 26 for fortnightly, 12 for monthly. The three buckets always sum to your full pay, so every dollar has a job before the pay period starts. To put the rule into practice, most people open separate bank accounts for each bucket and set up automatic transfers that fire the morning after payday, so the savings and debt money leaves the everyday account before it can be spent. If you are debt free, the 10 percent bucket can be redirected to extra investing, a house deposit or giving, whichever matches your goals.
Worked example
Say your take-home pay is $5,400 a month. The living bucket is $5,400 x 0.70, which is $3,780 a month to cover rent or mortgage, food, bills, transport and everyday spending. The savings and investing bucket is $5,400 x 0.20, which is $1,080 a month, and over 12 months that adds up to $12,960 of savings a year before any interest or returns. The final bucket is $5,400 x 0.10, which is $540 a month for extra debt repayments or giving. The three buckets add back to the full $5,400, so nothing is unallocated. If your rent alone were $2,600, you would still have $1,180 of the living bucket left each month for everything else, which tells you quickly whether the rule fits your situation or needs adjusting.
Related calculators
- Budget Calculator: full 50/30/20 budget planner.
- Payday Split Calculator: custom buckets for each pay.
- Savings Calculator: watch your savings grow with interest.
- Emergency Fund Calculator: size your safety net.
- Debt Snowball Calculator: plan faster debt payoff.