Landlords approve you on your gross pay. Rent comes due on your guaranteed pay. This engine stress-tests a lease against your base hours only — because overtime is a bonus, never a promise — then builds the cash plan to sign it safely.
Only the hours in writing count as guaranteed. Everything else is upside.
Rent is the headline. Utilities, fees, and insurance are the fine print that actually hits your account.
Housing cost ÷ guaranteed monthly net. Overtime is deliberately left out of the denominator.
of your guaranteed take-home goes to housing
Fill in Steps 1 and 2 and the engine will grade this lease against your base pay.
Strategy—
Signing day is the most expensive day of the lease. These fields start matched to your rent — edit any of them if your landlord's math differs.
Budget the new place with the Zero-Based Budgeting Binder and protect it with the Blue-Collar Buffer Binder on Gumroad — grab the free Paycheck Protection Checklist too.
Get the binders on Gumroad →The long-standing rule of thumb says housing should cost no more than 30% of your income — above that, you're officially "cost-burdened." This engine runs the rule harder than the banks do: it measures against your guaranteed take-home pay, not your gross and not your best month. Under 30% of base net, a lease survives slow weeks, cut shifts, and a busted transmission without a missed payment.
Because overtime is the first thing to disappear. Production slows, a line goes down, a new hire takes the extra shifts — and the OT you were counting on is gone, but the rent is still due on the 1st. If base pay alone covers the lease, OT becomes what it should be: fuel for debt payoff, savings, and getting ahead — not a load-bearing wall in your housing.
Many landlords collect three chunks at signing: the first month's rent (paying for the month you're about to live there), the last month's rent (held and applied to your final month), and a security deposit (held against damage, refundable if you leave the place as you found it). On a $1,150 lease that's $1,150 × 3 = $3,450 due before you get the keys — plus moving costs. This engine adds a buffer on top so signing day doesn't drain you to zero. Not every landlord charges all three; set any line to $0 if yours doesn't.