The 60/20/20 rule

50/30/20 for when the bills are bigger: at most 60 % of your net pay on needs, at most 20 % on wants, and the same 20 % saved.

4 min readUpdated Oct 2026

What is the 60/20/20 rule?

It takes the 50/30/20 rule and moves ten points from wants to needs. Savings stay where they were:

• Needs: at most 60 %. Rent, energy, groceries, getting to work, insurance, the minimum payments on loans.
• Wants: at most 20 %. Eating out, holidays, hobbies: anything you could stop paying for.
• Savings: at least 20 %. Including paying off debt faster than the minimum.

No single author came up with it. It's the adjustment people make when 50/30/20 doesn't fit, so everything from the original still applies: the percentages are of your pay after tax, and a need is a bill you would still have to pay if you lost your job.

Is it for me?

The usual reason is housing. When rent and energy take about 40 % of your net pay, groceries, transport, a phone and insurance on top bring needs to somewhere between 55 and 60 %.

It fits when:

• your rent is high and moving isn't a real option for now: a big city, a single income, a lease you've just signed;
• you have children, and childcare or school sits in needs;
• you would rather spend less on wants than save less.

The last point is the real choice. 60/20/20 makes room for needs by taking it from wants, and keeps savings at 20 %. If even 60 % isn't enough, 70/20/10 caps all living costs together at 70 %.

How much is that on my pay?

On 45 000 Kč net, needs can take up to 27 000 Kč and wants up to 9 000 Kč, and at least 9 000 Kč goes to savings.

The example plan pays 19 000 Kč for rent and energy. With groceries, transport, phone and insurance, needs come to 26 700 Kč, 59 % of pay. Under 50/30/20 that would be 4 200 Kč over the limit. Here it fits.

The price is paid in wants: 8 500 Kč a month instead of the 13 500 Kč that 50/30/20 allows. That's 5 000 Kč less each month for eating out, hobbies, clothes and holidays. Savings stay at 9 800 Kč.

Why not save less instead?

Because 20 % is what builds a cushion in a reasonable time. The example plan costs 35 200 Kč a month to live, so three months of costs is about 105 600 Kč. At 9 000 Kč a month that takes just under a year. At 10 % it would take two.

So if you can only hold on to one number, hold on to savings. A month with too much spent on wants is easy to fix next month. Years of saving too little are not.

Are my needs really needs?

Moving needs to 60 % only works if they are really needs. What most often hides there is the upgraded version of a need:

• a bigger flat than you would choose if money were tight;
• a car payment for a newer car than getting to work requires;
• a phone plan or an insurance policy with extras you would drop if your income stopped.

Count the basic cost as a need and the upgrade as a want. If wants then go past 20 %, the plan has shown you where the money goes, which is what it's for.

When should I move to 50/30/20?

60/20/20 works best as a stage. Each time your pay rises and your rent doesn't, needs take a smaller share. When they stay under 50 % for a few months in a row, switch the targets to 50/30/20 and give the freed-up room to savings or wants.

In Flow that's one change in the Targets menu, and the strip shows straight away how far each band is from its new limit.

Try it in Flow