All your automatic drafts in one place. Uncheck AutoPay from Checking to return a bill to its original section and regular paycheck recommendations.
Get caught up. Stay caught up. Start getting ahead.
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Your budget recovery plan changes as your money changes.
Start with Pay Me First. Set and save your monthly grocery and gas budget using the tool above. Then add income and bills below.
Open a step to see the instructions.
Before you build a plan for your bills, you must secure your basic survival. Your Pay Me First allocation is a custom amount you create to lock in your monthly grocery and gas expenses. We strictly advise against setting up any budget until these essential food and fuel costs are locked down.
In the Setup tab, use the grocery and gas sliders to map out a realistic monthly estimate before you enter any income. The app automatically holds this amount safe within your plan. Note: Paycheck Rescue is a strategic planning tool; it never shifts real money between bank accounts.
When you enter your paycheck income, simply check the Pay Me First checkbox. The calculation engine will instantly pull those funds out of your bill-paying pool, ensuring they are never recommended for creditor payments.
To maximize your security, we highly recommend opening a dedicated bank account strictly for grocery and gas expenses, alongside at least one separate checking account used entirely for paying your bills. Keeping these balances separated in real life guarantees your food money is never accidentally spent on an automatic draft.
Track bills that automatically draft from a dedicated checking account.
Add your regular pay schedules or log a one-time check. Make sure to check the "Pay Me First" box on the checks you want to protect. The app will immediately show you exactly how much money is locked down for your survival needs and how much remains available for your bills.
The system automatically takes your total monthly grocery and gas amounts and divides them evenly across your regular checks. If your pay schedule is irregular—such as receiving a check one week and then waiting two weeks for the next—the calculation engine intelligently calculates a fair distribution for that specific week to safely bridge the gap and get you to your next payday without running out of food money.
Enter each bill once into its dedicated section. Be sure to include the due date, minimum payment, balance, and any past-due amounts or fees.
Allows you to select each essential bill from a dropdown menu. Paycheck Rescue uses Essential Bills as those bills necessary to preserve life, safety, and shelter. These bills will be protected first in the event of a income shortfall.
Selecting "Mortgage" will automatically reveal specialized mortgage fields to track your home loans accurately, allowing you to add details like APR, maturity date, and loan terms used strictly for long-term bill planning purposes.
Enter your critical medication costs here. Tracking the costs to fill or refill a prescription can help to prevent an unbalanced budget by ensuring your medication money is strictly preserved without underfunding your other bills. It also serves as a simple reminder of when your next refill is due while tracking exact costs, meaning you will never be hit with a surprise healthcare expense in the middle of the month.
Tired of Healthcare Chaos? Take Total Control of Your Care. Tracking costs here is just the first step to a balanced budget—but your health is more than just a line item on a spreadsheet. Don't let missed doctor appointments, messy medical histories, or overdue lab results catch you off guard and throw your life into a tailspin.
Upgrade your peace of mind with our Medical Planner App. It gives you a crystal-clear, single-screen dashboard for your entire family's healthcare. Manage appointment calendars, track medication schedules, log personal health updates, and predict out-of-pocket costs before you ever step foot in the pharmacy. Clearer care, together.
These are your car loans, credit cards or personal loans. When you include the specific financing details, such as the APR and maturity date, if applicable, Paycheck Rescue’s calculation engine uses this information to estimate when credit cards will be paid down to 30% of the credit limit or when a loan could be paid in full (PIF) – freeing your money from debt!
A collection account occurs when a creditor closes your delinquent account and transfers the debt to a third-party agency.
Never make a payment or agree to a payment plan on a bill you do not recognize. Instead, force the agency to prove the debt is yours using our free letter templates, which are built directly on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
When you are working through a catch-up strategy, a collection account is your absolute lowest priority, and Paycheck Rescue might recommend deferring this bill until later. Remember, you can override any recommendation – you are in complete control of when and how much a bill will be paid.
Remember - only make payments or agree to a payment plan once the debt has been verified. Please note that when you agree to a payment plan with a debt collector, the payment plan will lock up money you may need to catch up on any past due bills.
Once a collection debt is officially verified, you can log custom settlement amounts, target dates, and agreements into the planner to fit them safely into your long-term recovery.
For every payment you make, you can record the exact checking account or credit card used by entering a simple comment, like CC 2345 – meaning you paid this bill using your credit card ending in 2345. This creates a clear digital paper trail, making it simple to trace or cross-reference your payments with your bank statements later.
Once you crush your past-due balances and catch up on your bills, the app unlocks Stay Ahead mode—and this is where your financial life completely changes. No more looking backward. No more panic attacks when a bill arrives.
Stay Ahead gives you the ultimate financial superpower: the ability to see into the future. You will track upcoming bills months in advance and see exactly how much pure, unallocated wealth is left over from your paycheck after your living costs are covered. As your life changes, you can instantly run dynamic future projections. You get to play offense: deciding exactly how to deploy your surplus cash to ruthlessly demolish debt or explosively build your private wealth.
Your Savings dashboard is where your financial freedom becomes real. Use it to track your real-time cash reserves, map out major life milestones, and build an unbreakable emergency buffer.
Paycheck Rescue calculates an optimized, dynamic savings target directly beneath each paycheck row. You will see exactly what to set aside, then log what you save to watch your wealth grow.
If your budget is under heavy pressure right now, the calculation engine will strategically hit pause on building new savings goals. We do this to fiercely protect you. When you are fighting your way out of a corner, every single dollar needs to go toward keeping your roof secure, your lights on, and wiping out toxic past-due penalties. We focus 100% of your power on stabilization first, ensuring we build a rock-solid floor beneath your feet before we ask you to climb.
Once Stay Ahead has shown you how much leftover income you control each month, don't let it sit idle in a low-interest savings account. You’ve fought hard to take back your income from debt—now make that income fight for you. Use our Wealth-Builder Investment App to instantly see how investing your available "Stay Ahead" funds can help you reach your future goals. Stop guessing what your future could look like—Make Your Future Today.
The Rescue Log is a report on each loan, card, collection or other debt you are paying off. Open the tab (in Normal and Fun it is under More) and choose a debt. There is nothing to enter. The Debt-Free Path tab shows all of your debts together: when you are projected to be caught up and debt-free, and what each debt costs you per month.
See each month's payment, interest, fees and how much reaches the balance. If a balance is growing, it shows in red.
See how much of your money goes to the balance, to interest and to fees.
Paycheck Rescue shows when the debt is projected to be paid in full, how much sooner that is, and what it may save you.
We recommend setting aside grocery money weekly. If you receive multiple checks in a month, you do not have to include every check in Pay Me First. Choose the checks that work best for your household, as long as you set aside grocery money every month. Your monthly grocery and gas budget is distributed across the selected checks, with more assigned when a check needs to cover a longer gap. Adjust your amounts under Setup. One-time checks start unchecked.
Estimate for the first paycheck. Enter a pay date and amount.
A repeating frequency creates future paychecks. One-time adds only this check. Edit Actual Amount on an existing paycheck to change that check only.
Totals cover scheduled payments in the current calendar month, including active subscriptions. Weekly and every-two-weeks totals depend on the actual dates. Planned expenses and collection suggestions stay separate.
All your automatic drafts in one place. Uncheck AutoPay from Checking to return a bill to its original section and regular paycheck recommendations.
Use this section for regular must-pay household bills, such as your mortgage or rent, electricity, water, insurance, and phone. Enter each bill once; Paycheck Rescue projects its future due dates. Keep your mortgage here as an essential housing bill. Car financing, personal loans, and credit cards go in Financed Accounts below so you can track their balances and payoff goals. You do not need to enter them twice. Use One-Time Bills for expenses that do not repeat.
| Bill | Due Date | Current | Past Due | Amount Still Due | Details |
|---|
Amount Still Due applies to the due date shown in each row. The required minimum remains editable under that amount. Future payments follow the frequency selected in Details.
Back taxes you pay the IRS in monthly payments. Treated as a Step 1 must-pay bill, with a balance for each tax year.
| Bill | Due Date | Current | Past Due | Amount Still Due | Details |
|---|
Hospital, tax, repair and other balances that do not restart every month. Enter them like your essential bills. While you are behind, Paycheck Rescue uses the Rescue Payment amount you enter. Once you are out of catch-up mode, it uses your Desired Payoff Period of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months as a planning goal.
| Bill | Balance ($) | Due Date | Required Minimum ($) | Rescue Payment ($) | Desired Payoff Period |
|---|
Track streaming, memberships, apps and other subscriptions separately. Paycheck Rescue can suggest pausing them while you catch up, but the choice is yours. If you keep one active, it is treated as a bill that needs to be paid.
| Subscription | Amount per payment ($) | Due Date | Status |
|---|
Mark a subscription paid after the payment clears. The date and account used are saved in Payments recorded on the Rescue Plan. This applies to the due date shown; future scheduled charges remain in the plan.
Set a deadline and track what has actually been saved or paid. Choose a contribution from each paycheck, once a month, once a quarter, or in one lump sum. The Rescue Plan protects required bills before suggesting contributions here; a deadline shortfall remains visible.
Track car financing, personal loans, credit cards, and every-two-weeks financing here, including each balance, payment, and past-due amount. Rescue Plan uses these accounts directly. Enter your regular rent or mortgage under Essential Bills. Enter the monthly car payment and the full loan balance separately here. Enter each account only once.
Before paying an older collection: In some states, making even a small payment, acknowledging the debt, or agreeing to a payment plan may restart the legal time limit for a lawsuit. Check the debt’s age and your state’s rules before paying or promising to pay. An existing payment plan does not automatically remove this risk. CFPB guidance on older debt.
Collections default to a suggested $10 monthly payment during recovery; you can override that amount. Confirm any required payment with the collector; $10 alone does not prevent collection action. Use the Agreed Settlement box only after the collector accepts the terms. Recorded payments reduce its remaining balance.
Open a scenario below. Pictures are examples, not your saved budget. Review the updated amounts before approving a payment.
Paycheck Rescue recommends a starting budget. Approve an amount to commit it; you can choose a different amount or $0. The recovery waterfall pays severe arrears before current minimums. A lower minimum needs your confirmation and leaves an unpaid balance.
Choose a past, current or future month to review your Rescue Plan.
See your monthly income, set-asides, bills, and what remains. Your Rescue Plan shows payment dates and catch-up recommendations.
Paycheck-by-paycheck recommendations update when income, bills or scheduled dates change. Use Mark as Paid only after making a payment; record its actual date, amount and the account used. Review or change payments on the RESCUE PLAN TAB.
Snowball — smallest debt balance first.
Groceries and gas first, current required minimums, then severe arrears by consequence and deadline. Essential and Financed minimums remain protected. Remaining money addresses severe arrears first, then other past due. Paused optional payments resume after past due is caught up.
Your bills are finally satisfied. Now, it's time to claim your reward. You have successfully fought your way out of the corner, and for the first time, you are completely in control of your cash. Stay Ahead is where you stop playing defense and start playing offense. It maps out your exact remaining income after all base bills are covered, giving you the ultimate blueprint to split your profits between explosive savings growth and ruthless extra debt payoffs. Leaving this tool untouched means letting your hard-earned surplus slip through your fingers—lock it into a purpose today.
Fiercely protect your future by funneling a dedicated portion of your surplus into an unbreakable emergency reserve, a major life purchase, or a personal milestone. Review the app’s optimized, dynamic savings recommendations, lock in the amount that matches your vision, and record what you actually save to watch your private wealth stack up in real-time.
Deploy your remaining surplus like a weapon against your open financed balances. The blue Debt Snowball plan below maps out your custom attack strategy, showing you exactly which accounts to target, when to strike, and how fast your balances will drop. Every extra payment you approve is a direct investment in buying back your total financial independence.
This is where the magic happens. The second an account is officially paid off, its former payment is immediately unlocked and added to your available cash pool. Watch that freed-up money automatically supercharge your next debt target or accelerate your savings. Keep your balances current in the app to witness the immediate, cascading power of your next payoff.
Never get caught off guard again. Peek into future months before committing a single dollar of your surplus. Use your personalized Report Card and Rescue Plan to project exactly when new waves of cash will become available, allowing you to fluidly shift your strategy as your life goals evolve.
Your financial journey is moving fast—don't let your budget lag behind. As your income rises, your savings compound, and your balances shrink to zero, return here to claim your next wealth-building opportunity. This plan dynamically binds your leftover income to the real-world goals you choose, giving you an undeniable, visual reason to keep stacking wins.
Always review and approve your savings recommendations first, then deploy the remaining money to fuel your extra debt payments. You have total flexibility to adjust the amounts. Remember, every dollar can only be deployed once—so check your live available balance bar before locking in a new financial commitment!
These choices use only money left after all bills, required set-asides and existing commitments are covered. If no surplus remains, no new savings or extra payment is funded. Future figures are estimates; you make the actual payments and transfers.
Update your paycheck, edit a bill, or log an unexpected expense. Paycheck Rescue updates its recommendations around your changes. Review the revised Rescue Plan before approving new payments.
Record money you actually added to or took out of savings. See your goals and projections in Savings.
Pay Me First sets money aside in your budget; it does not transfer money to a savings account. Enter each month’s total deposits and withdrawals below, including this month so far. Your savings balance updates automatically.
These savings are managed by the separate paycheck Savings rows. They are shown for tracking and are not deducted from your budget a second time.
This is money left after Pay Me First and planned bill payments. Choose where you want it to go; nothing is transferred automatically.
Existing account names and balances remain here for your records. Current Savings above can be used without adding another account.
Paychecks and bills together on their dates. Browse month by month.
Manage your account, subscription, and billing.
Checking your plan…