The 70/20/10 rule

Live on at most 70 % of your net pay. Of the rest, save 20 % and put 10 % towards paying off debt or giving.

4 min readUpdated Oct 2026

What is the 70/20/10 rule?

It splits your pay after tax into three parts:

• Living costs: at most 70 %. Everything you spend, needs and wants together: rent, energy, groceries, transport, eating out, holidays.
• Savings: at least 20 %. An emergency fund first, then saving and investing for later.
• Debt and giving: 10 %. Paying off debt faster than the minimum. Once you have no debt to clear, giving to people or causes you care about, or more savings.

The difference from 50/30/20 is that it doesn't ask you to split needs from wants. You only watch one spending number. In exchange it asks for more than 50/30/20 does outside spending: 30 % in all.

Nobody owns the name. Most personal finance writing describes it this way, but a few sites use 70/20/10 for 70 % needs, 20 % wants and 10 % savings. If you read about it elsewhere, check which one is meant.

Is it for me?

It fits when:

• you have debt beyond a mortgage, such as a car loan, a consumer loan or a credit card, and want a plan that clears it while you still save;
• sorting every cost into needs or wants feels like more bookkeeping than you'll keep up;
• your living costs are already near 70 % and you want one limit to hold them under.

If you have no debt and don't plan to give, the last 10 % simply becomes savings, and the rule turns into "spend at most 70 %, save at least 30 %".

How much is that on my pay?

On 45 000 Kč net: living costs at most 31 500 Kč, at least 9 000 Kč saved, and 4 500 Kč for debt or giving.

The example plan has a car loan with a minimum payment of 3 000 Kč, which counts as a living cost: you'd have to pay it whatever happens. With rent and energy at 16 000 Kč and the other bills and spending, living costs come to 31 200 Kč, 69 % of pay.

Then 9 300 Kč goes to savings, 4 000 Kč to paying the car loan off early and 500 Kč to giving.

How do I plan it in Flow?

Flow sorts every cost into one of three bands: Needs, Wants and Savings. The 70/20/10 targets measure them like this:

• Living costs are Needs and Wants together, at most 70 %. Put each cost in whichever of the two fits; for this rule only the total matters.
• Savings & debt is the Savings band, at least 30 %: your savings, what you pay on debts above the minimum, and giving. Paying debt off early counts as saving, the way All Your Worth, the book behind 50/30/20, counts it.

Keep the minimum payment on a loan in Needs, and only the extra in Savings. Then the plan shows both what the loan costs you each month and how fast you're clearing it.

What should the 10 % go to first?

To the debt with the highest interest rate. Paying it off early earns you exactly that rate, with no risk, which no savings account matches. A credit card or an overdraft usually comes before a car loan, and a car loan before a mortgage.

When a loan is paid off, keep the habit: send what you paid on it to savings or giving the next month. You've already learned to live without that money.

What if living costs are over 70 %?

Then the gap has to close through income or through the biggest costs, and it helps to know its size. Flow shows it in koruna on the Targets strip: 1 000 Kč over can often be found in smaller bills and subscriptions, 5 000 Kč over usually means housing, a car or income.

Until it closes, keep saving something. A smaller amount every month keeps the habit alive and builds the cushion that stops the next surprise bill going on a credit card.

Try it in Flow