How to live on 50% of your income and save 50%

Here's the quick formula. I'll add more details below: <br><br>* 50% income - 30% necessities - 20% wants = 0% or even negaitive to grow your wealth over time<br><br>Necessities:<br><br>* 1/3 of 30% for housing (15%)<br>* 1/3 of 30% for food (15%)<br>* 1/3 of 30% for everything else (15%)<br><br>Wants:<br><br>* 1/3 of 20% for savings (6.6%) / you get 50% savings at the end<br>* 1/3 of 20% for debt repayment (6.6%) / after which you can allocate 6.6% more for savings<br>* 1/3 of 20% for wants (6.6%)<br><br>Details:<br><br>You can do this in either order, but you can live on 50% of your income and save 50% if you split the other 50% between necessities and wants. You can also cut your necessities further and allocate more to wants.<br><br>Remember that wants and necessities can change over time, and you can adjust your allocations accordingly.<br><br>Food is a good example. It could cost $300 or $1000 a month depending on how much you allocate for it and how much you cook at home vs dine out.<br><br>Therefore, the 50-50 rule is universal, but the 30-20 rule is not, and you should adjust it as much or as little as you want. The 33 rule is even more arbitrary since you could allocate 1/3 of 20% for wants, but you could also easily allocate 2/3 of 20% for wants or even 3/3 of 20% for wants, which is the case if you don't have any debt or savings, or if you prefer to live in the moment for now and delay long term thinking.<br><br>In this case, if you are willing to live on 50% of your income, but you don't want to save anything yet, you can allocate 20% for wants and delay your debt repayment until later (not recommended). You can also delay your wants until later and put 20% of it into debt repayment and savings (recommended).