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Spent 6 months using the 50-30-20 budget rule and my savings went DOWN
Everyone swears by it but I tried the 50-30-20 split on my $3,200 monthly income in Austin and somehow ended up with less in my emergency fund. What budgeting trick actually worked for you when the popular advice failed?
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the_faith20d ago
Wait, your savings went DOWN after six months of following the 50-30-20 rule? That's wild because everyone treats it like some kind of magic fix for money problems. I think the issue is that Austin rent is just too high for that split to work on $3,200 a month.
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wesley_adams20d ago
Honestly I think the real problem is nobody talks about the difference between gross and net income with that rule. If that $3,200 is take home after taxes then fine, but if it's pre tax you're already behind before you even split anything up. Also the 50% for needs includes stuff like minimum debt payments, so if that person has a car loan or student loans their actual housing budget is way less than $1,600. Did they factor all that in before blaming Austin rent?
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nora_park20d ago
Right, because the 50-30-20 rule is magic and your car payment and student loans just politely vanish for the sake of the math. Maybe we should just tell people to stop buying avocado toast and their monthly debt minimums will fix themselves. That $1,600 for housing suddenly looks like $900 after minimums hit, good luck finding a closet in Austin for that.
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