Meta Finas — Personal Budget and Savings Guide | metafinas.org
The same split read across three net incomes — 2,500, 3,500 and 5,000 dollars — with the pay-yourself-first savings column beside it, and the envelope and zero-based methods described next to the table.
The 50/30/20 budget sends 50 percent of net income to needs, 30 percent to wants and 20 percent to savings. On a net income of 3,500 dollars a month that is 1,750, 1,050 and 700 dollars. The same arithmetic at 2,500 dollars gives 1,250, 750 and 500 dollars; at 5,000 dollars it gives 2,500, 1,500 and 1,000 dollars.
The pay-yourself-first budget saves at least 20 percent of net income before any spending, and the remaining 80 percent is free to spend. At the three incomes above the savings column is 500, 700 and 1,000 dollars. 70/30, 60/40 and 50/50 variants save more: at 3,500 dollars, 70/30 saves 1,050 dollars a month, 60/40 saves 1,400 dollars, and 50/50 saves 1,750 dollars.
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Zero-based budgeting takes a different route to the same end: every dollar of net income is assigned a purpose before the month starts, and the budget ends the month with a zero balance. Nothing is left unassigned, so the savings line is funded by design rather than by whatever remains.
The envelope method assigns cash to categories the same way — one envelope per category — and stops spending when an envelope is empty. Both methods work with any of the splits above; the split decides proportions, and the method decides enforcement.
All figures apply to net income. Allocating from gross pay inflates every column by the amount of the tax withholding, and the needs column then runs short before the month is half over.
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