Living Costs
Also known as: Fixed costs, running costs, basic expenses
Living costs are all expenses you need to live — housing, car, groceries, insurance, phone, clothing. Everything you can't simply skip.
How much is healthy?
Rule of thumb: under 70% of your net income is great, up to 80% is acceptable, over 80% is critical. If your living costs are too high, there's nothing left for saving, investing or fun. The biggest levers are housing and car.
What counts?
In BudgetHeld, we group living costs into three areas: Housing (rent, electricity, heating, utilities), Car (lease, insurance, fuel, service) and Other (internet, phone, groceries, streaming, clothing). Giving, Saving, Guilt Free and Investing deliberately DON'T count — those are choices, not necessities.
BudgetHeld says
In BudgetHeld, you see your living costs as a group — Housing, Car and Other combined with a percentage display. Under 70% = green, up to 80% = yellow, over 80% = red. So you instantly know if you're living within your means.
Related tools
Budget tool — Living costs overview →Related Terms
Written by David El Dib — Financial expert & founder of MoneyTalk