Personal Budget & Net Worth Tracker
Monthly budget, expense categories, savings goals, investment tracking, and net worth calculation with trend charts.
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Personal Budget & Net Worth Tracker
A complete personal finance workbook for tracking monthly budgets, categorized expenses, savings goals, investments, and net worth — with trend charts and the 50/30/20 framework built in. Works in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
What's Included
This workbook contains 6 interconnected tabs covering your entire financial picture, plus live formulas, import/customization docs, and two plain-English guides:
| Tab | File | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 01 - Monthly Budget | sheets/01-monthly-budget.csv | Income vs. expenses by category with 50/30/20 targets, 12 months of actuals |
| 02 - Transactions | sheets/02-transactions.csv | Daily expense log with categories and payment methods |
| 03 - Expense Categories | sheets/03-expense-categories.csv | Category master: budget, bucket, and tracking tips for every line |
| 04 - Savings Goals | sheets/04-savings-goals.csv | 14 goals with progress %, months remaining, and projected dates |
| 05 - Investments | sheets/05-investments.csv | Portfolio tracker with gain/loss, allocation, and rebalancing drift |
| 06 - Net Worth | sheets/06-net-worth.csv | Monthly assets-minus-liabilities snapshot with a 12-month trend |
Key Features
- 50/30/20 Framework — the budget classifies every dollar into Needs / Wants / Savings and shows your split each month
- Automated Category Totals — log a transaction once and
SUMIFSrolls it up to the budget by category and month - Savings Goal Progress Bars — visual tracking toward your emergency fund, down payment, vacation, and more
- Investment Allocation & Drift — track value, cost basis, return, and how far each holding has drifted from target
- Net Worth Trend — a monthly snapshot of assets minus liabilities, climbing over time with sparkline charts
- Real, reconciled sample data — the tabs cross-reference each other so nothing looks empty while you learn the layout
Tab-by-Tab Walkthrough
01 - Monthly Budget
Your monthly plan and actuals in one grid: expected income at the top, then expense categories grouped into Needs (housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, transport, minimum debt), Wants (dining, entertainment, shopping, subscriptions, hobbies, personal care), and Savings/Debt (emergency fund, retirement, investments, extra debt payoff, vacation). The bottom rows compute total expenses, monthly surplus/deficit, and your Needs/Wants/Savings percentages for all 12 months.
02 - Transactions
The raw spending log: date, description, category, amount, payment method (cash/debit/credit/transfer), and notes. This is where daily spending is recorded. The SUMIFS formulas in formulas/FORMULAS.md pull these totals into the Monthly Budget tab automatically, matched by category and month.
03 - Expense Categories
The category master and single source of truth for category names. Each row maps a category to its 50/30/20 bucket, its budgeted amount, its share of income, how flexible it is, typical merchants, and a tracking tip. Use it to power a clean dropdown on the Transactions tab and to auto-classify spending into buckets.
04 - Savings Goals
Fourteen sample goals — emergency fund, home down payment, new car, wedding, vacation, 529, sinking funds, and more — each with a target amount, current balance, monthly contribution, deadline, and priority. Formulas calculate percent complete, months remaining at your current pace, projected completion date, and the contribution required to hit the deadline on time.
05 - Investments
A portfolio tracker across taxable, 401(k), Roth IRA, and HSA accounts. Each holding records current value, cost basis, unrealized gain ($ and %), current allocation, target allocation, and drift so you can see at a glance what needs rebalancing. A TOTAL row blends the whole portfolio (sample: $175,300 value, +22.4% blended return).
06 - Net Worth
Monthly snapshots of all assets (checking, savings, emergency fund, brokerage, 401(k), Roth IRA, HSA, vehicle) minus all liabilities (credit cards, student loan, auto loan). The bottom line is your net worth, tracked across 12 months — in the sample, climbing from $141,300 to $193,000. The investment lines reconcile with the totals on the Investments tab.
Quick Start (5 minutes)
1. Import all six CSV files as separate tabs (see docs/IMPORT-GUIDE.md)
2. Update tab 01 with YOUR income and expense categories
3. Set your savings goals in tab 04
4. Start logging transactions in tab 02
5. Update net worth (tab 06) once per month
Full setup walkthrough: docs/GETTING-STARTED.md. Every live formula with exact cell references: formulas/FORMULAS.md.
Compatibility
| Platform | Version | Notes |
|---|
... continues with setup instructions, usage examples, and more.
📄 Content Sample guides/50-30-20-method.md
The 50/30/20 Method (and How This Workbook Uses It)
The 50/30/20 rule is the simplest budgeting framework that actually survives contact
with real life. It splits your after-tax income into three buckets:
| Bucket | Target | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
| Needs | 50% | Things you can't skip without real consequences |
| Wants | 30% | Things that make life enjoyable but are optional |
| Savings & Debt | 20% | Anything that grows your net worth |
That's the whole framework. Its power is that it's coarse — you don't track 47
categories, you track three buckets and make sure the proportions are roughly right.
Why after-tax income?
The percentages are calculated on take-home pay — what actually hits your bank
account — not gross salary. Taxes, health premiums deducted at source, and
pre-tax retirement contributions are already handled before the money reaches you.
In this workbook, the ratio rows divide each bucket by Total Income (row 4 of the
Monthly Budget tab), which you should fill with take-home figures.
One nuance: money you put into a 401(k) before it hits your paycheck is already
"saving 20%" in spirit. If most of your retirement saving is pre-tax payroll
deduction, your visible Savings bucket can look smaller than it really is. Count
both when you judge yourself.
What counts as a Need vs. a Want
This is where people get stuck. Two tests:
1. The consequence test: if you stopped paying it, would something genuinely bad
happen soon? (Eviction, no power, no way to get to work, a lapsed insurance claim.)
If yes → Need.
2. The minimum test: the minimum viable version is a Need; the upgrade is a Want.
Rice and beans are a Need; the restaurant version is a Want. A phone plan is a
Need; the top-tier unlimited plan's extra cost is a Want.
| Usually a Need | Usually a Want |
|---|---|
| Rent / mortgage, basic utilities | Dining out, takeout coffee |
| Groceries (home cooking) | Streaming, subscriptions, apps |
| Commuting transport, fuel | Hobbies, travel, entertainment |
| Insurance, minimum debt payments | Shopping beyond basics, upgrades |
... and much more in the full download.