AI Budget Calculator
for Australians

The 50/30/20 rule splits your after-tax income into three buckets: 50% to needs (rent or mortgage, groceries, transport, insurance, utilities, minimum debt repayments), 30% to wants (eating out, streaming, hobbies, travel, anything optional), and 20% to savings and extra debt repayments (emergency fund, super contributions, share investments, paying down loans faster). It is a starting framework, not a rigid law — Australians in expensive cities often need to flex the split, and high earners can usually save more than 20%.

Often not without flexing it. In Sydney and Melbourne, median rent for a one-bedroom unit in 2026 is around $580 and $520 per week respectively, which can push housing alone past 35% of the after-tax income of a median earner — leaving 'needs' at 60%+ of net income. The realistic adaptation is a 60/20/20 or even 65/15/20 split where housing is treated as a fixed cost, savings remain protected, and wants are squeezed. The calculator lets you adjust the percentages to match your reality.

An AI budget app uses a conversational AI agent to help you understand where your money is going and decide what to change, instead of just showing you a spreadsheet of transactions. Richify's Felix is the conversational entry point — ask 'where should I cut back?' or 'what would happen if I doubled my Vanguard contribution?' and Felix explains the trade-offs in plain English using your actual numbers. Specialist agents like Pepper (Financial Architect) and Dua (Money Mind Coach) handle deeper budget structure and behaviour work respectively.

No — HECS is repaid through compulsory PAYG withholding, which comes out of your gross pay before you see it. By the time you're budgeting your after-tax income, HECS has already been deducted. The same applies to your standard 11.5% superannuation guarantee (also pre-tax employer contribution). However, voluntary HECS payments, voluntary super contributions, and salary sacrifice arrangements all belong in your 20% savings bucket — they are choices you make with money you've already mentally allocated.

Needs are anything you'd still have to pay if you lost your job tomorrow and were rebuilding from scratch: rent or mortgage, basic groceries, electricity and gas, internet (for job searching and remote work), public transport or fuel, basic phone, council rates and strata, health insurance if you're avoiding the Medicare Levy Surcharge, and minimum debt repayments. Everything else is wants: streaming, dining out, premium phone plans, gym, hobbies, travel, the upgrade tier of insurance. The line is genuinely fuzzy in practice — the discipline is to be honest about which side something falls on, not to relabel wants as needs.

Build the budget on your lowest reasonable month — the 25th-percentile income of the past 12 months — and treat anything above that as a buffer or bonus. Many Australian freelancers, rideshare drivers, and tradies set aside an additional 25% to 30% of every payment for PAYG income tax (since no employer withholds for them), then run the 50/30/20 framework on the net. Quarterly BAS lodgement for GST-registered earners adds a separate cash-flow discipline — keep GST collected in a separate account so it's already there when the BAS is due.

The Australian rule of thumb is three to six months of essential expenses — your 'needs' total times three to six. For a household where needs run $4,500 per month, that's $13,500 to $27,000 sitting in a high-interest savings account. Households with secure income (public service, healthcare) can sit at the lower end; gig workers, contractors, and single-income households should aim for the upper end. The emergency fund is the first savings priority — before extra mortgage repayments, share investing, or voluntary super contributions.

Always budget on after-tax — what actually lands in your bank account each pay cycle. Australian income tax is progressive and includes the 2% Medicare Levy, plus the 1% to 1.5% Medicare Levy Surcharge for higher earners without private health insurance, plus HECS, plus any salary sacrifice. The headline gross figure is misleading because half a dozen deductions happen before you can spend a cent. Use Richify's Income Tax Calculator if you need an accurate take-home figure from a salary offer.

A sinking fund is a separate pot you contribute to each month to cover irregular but predictable costs — car registration ($800 to $1,200 annually), home insurance ($1,500 to $3,500), Christmas ($1,000+), birthdays, car servicing, dental work. Without one, these expenses derail the monthly budget when they hit. The simplest approach is to add up your annual irregular costs, divide by 12, and direct that amount to a separate high-interest sub-account each pay cycle. Some Australians treat it as part of the 50% needs bucket; others slot it into the 20% savings bucket.

Yes — Richify is available to download in Australia on the App Store and Google Play, and it is free to start. The app handles AU-specific budget realities (HECS, super salary sacrifice, ASX investing, ATO income tax brackets, ASFA retirement standards) out of the box. Felix and the specialist AI agents are built for Australians, no global-template translation work required.