Affordable rent Calculator

Affordable rent starts with a practical question: after the money already committed each month, how much income remains for housing? This calculator subtracts planned savings, debt payments and other expenses from monthly income. The answer is the remaining budget under those inputs, rather than a landlord qualification rule or a promise that a particular rent will be comfortable.

A residual budget can be more informative than applying one income percentage to every household. Two people with the same pay may have different transport costs, debt or childcare expenses. The trade-off is that the estimate is only as complete as the expense list. Costs left out of the form remain your responsibility even if the result appears large.

1. Start with a realistic monthly income amount. For a household cash budget, take-home pay is usually the useful basis because it represents money available after payroll deductions; avoid subtracting those deductions again in expenses.
2. Enter the amount you intend to save each month. Include the savings commitments you want the housing decision to preserve rather than treating every remaining unit of income as spendable.
3. Enter monthly debt payments and other monthly expenses separately. Keep food, transport, utilities, childcare and similar recurring costs in expenses, without counting debt or savings a second time.
4. Use one currency for all amounts. Although each money field has a currency selector, the calculation simply subtracts the entered numbers and uses the income currency as its result label.
5. Calculate, compare the remainder with the total cost of the proposed housing and rerun the estimate with less favourable assumptions, such as lower variable income or a higher utility bill.

• Do not use gross annual salary in a monthly take-home budget. Convert the period and decide how payroll deductions are handled first.
• Do not enter an entire credit-card balance as a monthly debt payment. Use the payment amount relevant to the budget, and account for associated spending consistently.
• Do not include current rent in other expenses if the result is meant to replace that rent with a new amount.
• Convert annual and irregular bills to planned monthly provisions where appropriate, while keeping their actual payment dates in a separate cash schedule.

• CFPB — Your Money, Your Goals budgeting toolkit