The Steady Paycheck Calculator

Lumpy income, steady paycheck.

Freelance, commission or side hustle money? Enter what came in the last few months and get a paycheck you can count on, a safety net goal, and a plan for every good month.

How to use it

  1. Type in what came in each month, after business expenses.
  2. Add your must-pay bills, your tax set-aside and the cash you have saved.
  3. Get your steady paycheck, your buffer goal and what to do with every good month.
  4. Copy your plan and set up the transfers once.

Your numbers

Sample numbers from a freelancer’s year. Replace them with yours.

What came in each month

After business expenses, before taxes. Oldest month first. Leave a box blank if you don’t have that month (you need at least 3).

$

Bills that must be paid: rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum debt payments.

%
$

Tax set-aside: money you set aside for taxes before anything else. 25–30% is a common starting point. Cash buffer: emergency savings you could use if a month comes in light.

More options
months
%

Six months of essentials is a smart goal when your income changes. Once your buffer is full, this share of every extra dollar gets invested, and the rest is guilt-free fun money.

Your steady paycheck

Pay yourself

$3,000/month

Your average month after taxes$4,688
Your leanest month after taxes$2,700

How this works

Taxes come first. Every month, your tax set-aside goes to its own account before you touch a dollar.

Your paycheck is based on your lean months, not your best ones. It’s the average of your 3 lowest months after taxes (if you enter fewer than 9 months, it uses your lowest quarter of months), rounded down to the nearest $50. That’s an amount your business has already proven it can pay you.

It tries to cover your essentials. If that number is below your must-pay bills but your average month after taxes can cover them, your paycheck is raised to your essentials and your buffer smooths out the lean months. If even your average month can’t cover them, you’ll see the gap so you can plan for it.

Then the good-month rule. Anything above your paycheck tops up your buffer until it’s full. After that, the extra is split between investing and fun money. In a lean month, your buffer covers the difference so your paycheck stays the same.

Your buffer goal

$16,800

$5,000 saved$11,800 to go

The good-month rule

Where every month’s money goes

    Your months on a steady paycheck

    Each month’s income after taxes compared with your steady paycheck

    Your buffer if you’d used this system

    Buffer balance by month with this system

    Your plan

    Copy it, save it, send it

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    The fine print

    Educational only, not financial or tax advice. This is a simple model to help you plan around income that changes. Your real tax bill depends on your situation, so check your set-aside with a tax pro.

    How the math works: each month, your tax set-aside comes off the top. Your steady paycheck is the average of your 3 lowest months after taxes (your lowest quarter of months if you enter fewer than 9), rounded down to the nearest $50, raised to your essentials when your average month after taxes can cover them. Your buffer goal is your essentials times the months you pick. In each month of the replay, anything above your paycheck fills your buffer until it hits the goal, then splits between investing and fun money; a month below your paycheck is covered by your buffer. “Time to fill” uses your average month’s extra after taxes and your paycheck. Money is rounded to the cent along the way and shown in whole dollars. It leaves out interest on your savings and investment returns.