Emergency Fund Calculator
How much you need to get through a bad stretch, how much of it you already have, and when you'll have the rest.
What a month costs
Rent or mortgage, food, bills, insurance, transport, minimum debt payments. Not the nice-to-haves.
How many months
3 if your income is steady and nobody depends on you. 6 for most people. 12 if you're self-employed, the only earner, or in a job that's hard to replace.
Your saving
Money you could reach within a day or two.
Leave 0 if you're not sure. It barely changes the answer.
Your emergency fund
You need $15,000: 6 months of $2,500. At $500 a month you'll have it in 24 months.
The fund filling up
Month by month at $500 a month. The dashed line is your target.
Milestones
Each one is a bad month you could survive.
Add $200 a month and you're there 6 months sooner.
How it's calculated
The target is your essential monthly costs times the months you want covered. Essentials are what you'd keep paying if your income stopped tomorrow: housing, food, utilities, insurance, getting to work, and the minimum on every debt. Subscriptions and eating out are not in it, because they are the first things you'd cut.
The months of cover are a judgement about how long it could take to replace your income. Steady job, no dependants: three months is a reasonable floor. Most households: six. Self-employed, a single income, or a specialised job: twelve, because the search takes longer and the gaps are wider.
Keep the fund somewhere you can reach in a day but not by accident: a separate savings account, not the current account and not investments, which may be down exactly when you need them. Interest is a bonus, not the point.