How Much ‘Goofing Around’ Money Can You Afford? (And How Much to Use Testing Stock Picks)

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Last updated: October 9, 2026

Everyone needs some money that’s just for fun: concerts, a weekend away, a new gadget, or trying your hand at picking stocks. The trick is knowing how much you can spend without feeling guilty or hurting your future. Here’s a simple way to figure out your “goofing around” money, plus how to think about using some of it to test stock picks.

Skip the math. Use the calculator.

Enter your pay, bills and savings goals and see your Goofing Around Money in seconds.

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Step 1: Start with your take-home pay

Use what actually lands in your bank account each month, after taxes and deductions. Popular budgeting rules, like 50/30/20, are based on take-home pay (NerdWallet).

Step 2: Take out your must-pay bills

These are the things you can’t skip: housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, insurance, childcare and minimum debt payments. Under the 50/30/20 rule of thumb, needs take about 50% of take-home pay (NerdWallet). If yours are higher, that’s common, but it means less room for fun.

Step 3: Pay your future self

Before fun money, set aside savings. The 50/30/20 rule puts about 20% toward savings and paying down debt (NerdWallet). Three savings goals matter most:

An emergency fund. A common goal is 3 to 6 months of living expenses (Investor.gov).
Retirement. Fidelity suggests saving at least 15% of your income each year, including any employer match. It also gives age milestones: about 1x your salary saved by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60 and 10x by 67 (Fidelity). These are rough targets, not rules.
High-interest debt payoff. Investor.gov says no investment strategy pays off as well as, or with less risk than, getting rid of high-interest debt (Investor.gov).

Step 4: What’s left is yours to enjoy

Take-home pay, minus bills, minus savings, minus the fun you already pay for every month (streaming, eating out, the gym) equals your Goofing Around Money. Spend it without guilt. It’s already accounted for.

If the number comes out negative, your plan costs more than you bring home. Look for a bill to trim or an extra to drop, and our spending calculator can help you find where the money goes.

Want to test your own stock picks?

Maybe you watch a TV stock show like CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer (Wikipedia), or you see stock tips online, and you want to try picking a few yourself. Your goofing around money is a sensible place to do that, because it’s money you’ve already decided you can live without.

Before you start:

Get your safety net in place first. Have an emergency fund and no high-interest debt. The calculator checks both for you.
Only use money you can afford to lose. Investor.gov says you should never invest more than you can afford to lose (Investor.gov).
Pick a set amount. Decide how much of your fun money goes to stock picks, like 25%, and stick to it. The calculator shows what that adds up to over a year.
Keep your real savings separate. Stock picking is for your fun money, not your retirement or emergency fund. Investor.gov notes that many people find it easier to spread out risk with mutual funds or ETFs than with single stocks (Investor.gov).
Be skeptical of hot tips. The SEC warns against investing based only on information from social media or apps, and says to watch for “pump and dump” schemes that hype a stock so the people behind it can sell at a high price (Investor.gov).

A quick example

Say you take home $5,000 a month, and you have:

$3,000 in bills
$150 in debt payments
$700 going to savings
$300 in regular extras

That leaves $850 a month of goofing around money. If you put 25% of it toward stock picks, that’s about $213 a month, or $2,550 a year. But if your emergency fund covers less than 3 months of bills, the calculator will tell you to build that up first.

Try the Goofing Around Calculator with your own numbers →

Sources

This article is for general education and is not financial or investment advice. Finance Espresso is not affiliated with or endorsed by CNBC or Jim Cramer.