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Life Support vs. Lifestyle Split Calculator
Understand where your money is going: essentials vs. extras
Life Support is the money that keeps the lights on. Lifestyle is everything you choose to spend beyond that. Enter your monthly spending in each category below to see your personal split, and discover what your numbers are telling you.
♥ Life Support: Your Essentials
These are the non-negotiables: what you must cover to keep your life running. Aim to know this number cold.
Line ItemMonthly Amount
Housing (rent or mortgage)
$
Utilities (electricity, heat, water, internet)
$
Groceries and household supplies
$
Transportation (transit, fuel, insurance)
$
Insurance (health, dental, life)
$
Minimum debt payments
$
Childcare or dependent care
$
Medications and essential health costs
$
Subtotal: Life Support
$
0.00
✨ Lifestyle: Your Choices
These are the choices you make with what is left. Some are joyful. Some are automatic. All of them are worth knowing.
Line ItemMonthly Amount
Dining out and takeout
$
Entertainment and recreation
$
Subscriptions and streaming services
$
Shopping (clothing, gadgets, household upgrades)
$
Personal care and grooming
$
Travel and vacations
$
Gifts and donations
$
Other discretionary spending
$
Subtotal: Lifestyle
$
0.00
Your Money Split
Life Support
$0
Lifestyle
$0
Total Spending
$0
Enter your numbers above to see your personalized insight here.
Know
Your money naturally divides into two buckets: what keeps your life running (Life Support) and what makes it meaningful (Lifestyle). Most people have never seen this split clearly.
Do
Enter every monthly expense honestly. Do not judge the numbers as you go. The goal right now is clarity, not perfection. You cannot change what you cannot see.
Review
Look at your split. Is it what you expected? Are your Lifestyle choices intentional, or are they automatic? Use this insight to decide where your next dollar should go.
Glossary of Terms
- Life Support
- The PTL term for essential, non-negotiable monthly expenses. These are costs that, if unpaid, would directly threaten your housing, safety, health, or financial standing.
- Lifestyle
- The PTL term for discretionary monthly spending: the choices you make with money left after Life Support is covered. These are real and valid expenses, but they are optional by definition.
- Money Split
- The percentage breakdown of your total spending between Life Support and Lifestyle. There is no universal "right" split. Clarity is the goal, not judgment.
- Poise
- A Plan To Live tool that reads your bank and credit card statements right in your browser, checks each one against its own totals, and sorts every dollar into Life Support and Lifestyle. Nothing you upload is sent anywhere.
- Discretionary Spending
- Money spent on wants rather than needs. Discretionary spending is not bad. Unexamined discretionary spending is where most financial leakage happens.
- Fixed vs. Variable Expenses
- Fixed expenses are the same amount each month (rent, loan payment). Variable expenses change month to month (groceries, fuel, dining). Both categories exist in Life Support and Lifestyle.
- TFSA / RRSP (Canada)
- Registered savings accounts that can hold a range of investment products. TFSA contributions grow tax-free. RRSP contributions reduce your taxable income in the year of contribution.