Thinking about renting? Don’t know what you can afford? Use the interactive spreadsheet below to help estimate what you can afford in rent! In the blue square enter in your monthly income after taxes. In the pink square enter in the total monthly expense for that specific category – feel free to rename the category if you need to. The red square will automatically calculate your total monthly expenses. Then the green square will automatically subtract your total monthly expenses from your total income which will give you your disposable income or income that you can spend or save. Use this number to help you estimate rent. Remember that you don’t typically want to dedicate all of your disposable income to your rent – you want some left over for additional savings and for shopping for example.
Keep in mind that rentals have a variety of fees associated with them such as application fees, security deposits, pet deposits, pet rents, move-in fees, elevator fees, parking fees, utility transfer fees, amenity fees, and earnest money deposits. Application fees typically range between $30-$70 and security deposits are typically equal to one month’s rent.
