Personal Burn Rate Calculator

Work out how fast personal savings deplete without income, and how long they last.

About Personal Burn Rate Calculator

Runway divides accessible savings by the monthly shortfall rather than by total expenses, because any continuing income extends it. The reduced-budget figure matters because spending is far more compressible than most people assume until they need it to be. Job loss and illness are the two most common financial shocks, and runway measured in months is the number that determines how much choice you have when one arrives.

Formula

Personal Burn Rate

Runway = accessible savings ÷ (expenses − continuing income)

net burn: Monthly shortfall that savings must fund
reduced budget: Burn after cutting discretionary spending

Worked example

With the default values below, Personal Burn Rate Calculator returns Runway Without Income of 13.6. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Accessible savingsminimum 0: 30,000
Essential monthly expensesminimum 0: 2,600
Any continuing monthly incomeminimum 0: 400
Expenses you could cut if neededaccepts 0–100 %: 20 %

Results

Runway Without Income: 13.6 months
Net Monthly Burn: $2,200.00
Runway on a Reduced Budget: 17.9 months
Reduced Monthly Burn: $1,680.00
Verdict: At least six months of cover

Step by step

1Values used
2Personal Burn Rate
3Runway Without Income= 13.6 months
4Net Monthly Burn= 2,200.00
5Runway on a Reduced Budget= 17.9 months
6Reduced Monthly Burn= 1,680.00
7Verdict= At least six months of cover

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Personal Burn Rate calculated?

Runway = accessible savings ÷ (expenses − continuing income) Runway divides accessible savings by the monthly shortfall rather than by total expenses, because any continuing income extends it. The reduced-budget figure matters because spending is far more compressible than most people assume until they need it to be.

Why does Personal Burn Rate matter?

Job loss and illness are the two most common financial shocks, and runway measured in months is the number that determines how much choice you have when one arrives.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 4 inputs: Accessible savings, Essential monthly expenses, Any continuing monthly income, Expenses you could cut if needed. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.