Budget
Flex Budget Calculator
Your income split the ClariFi way — Fixed, Flexible, Non-Monthly, and Savings. Type a number; the four buckets answer.
- Fixed50%$3,000
- Flexible25%$1,500
- Non-Monthly10%$600
- Savings15%$900
Fixed 50 · Flexible 25 · Non-Monthly 10 · Savings 15 — extra savings comes out of Flexible. ClariFi's Flex mode tunes these to your real bills.
How it works
Most budgets fail for a boring reason: forty categories are forty chances to fall behind. ClariFi's Flex mode collapses them into four buckets. Fixed is the bills that don't negotiate — rent, insurance, the phone plan. Flexible is one shared pool for everyday life: groceries, restaurants, the small stuff. Non-Monthly reserves a tenth of income for expenses that are completely predictable and never monthly — car insurance, gifts, the vet. Savings is what leaves the checking account on purpose.
The default split is 50 / 25 / 10 / 15. Nudge the savings stepper and the extra comes out of Flexible — never Fixed, because rent doesn't care about your ambitions. On $6,000 a month that's $3,000 fixed, $1,500 flexible, $600 set aside for non-monthly bills, and $900 saved.
If you'd rather see the classic three-bucket version, the 50/30/20 calculator runs the same income through the older rule — and shows the gap this fourth bucket exists to close.
The formula
fixed = income × 0.50
non-mo = income × 0.10
savings = income × (savings % / 100)
flexible = income − fixed − non-mo − savings ← remainder lands here,
so it sums to the penny
Example: $6,000 → $3,000 · $1,500 · $600 · $900
Honest assumptions
- "Income" means after-tax take-home — what actually lands in your account each month.
- 50/25/10/15 is a starting point, not a rule. In the app, Flex mode tunes the buckets to your real bills.
- Extra savings trades against Flexible only — that's the point of having a flexible pool.
- This page does arithmetic. It doesn't know your life — it's a starting point, not a plan, and not advice.
Questions people ask
What goes in the Non-Monthly bucket?
Anything predictable that doesn't recur monthly: annual insurance premiums, holiday gifts, yearly subscriptions, car registration, the dentist. These aren't emergencies — they're scheduled surprises, and giving them their own bucket is what keeps them from raiding your grocery money in December.
What happens to leftovers at the end of the month?
In ClariFi's Flex mode, leftovers (or overspend) roll into next month — the math follows you instead of resetting to zero. This calculator shows the split for one month; rollover is where the app takes over.
How is this different from 50/30/20?
Two ways: the "wants" bucket is smaller because a tenth of income is reserved for non-monthly bills, and the savings default is a touch lower to make room for it. The 50/30/20 calculator shows both splits side by side.
Can I change the percentages?
Here, the savings target moves and the rest is fixed — deliberately, so the comparison stays honest. In the app, every bucket is tunable and ClariFi suggests a split from your actual bill history.
Related calculators
ClariFi makes tools, not advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or sign anything.
In the app
ClariFi runs this math on your real accounts.
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