Emergency fund calculator

• The target is built from essential monthly spending, not total spending. Rent, food, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments and transport.
• You choose the number of months. Three suits stable salaried income with a second earner; six or more suits a single income, variable pay, or dependents.
• The timeline divides the gap between what you have and the target by what you can save each month.
• Interest is not counted, so the timeline is slightly conservative. Kept in a high-yield account rather than checking, the fund gets there a little sooner.

Essential spending of $3,200 a month on a single income points to six months, or $19,200. With $2,000 saved and $450 a month going in, that is about 39 months, or about 36 if the fund earns 4% in a high-yield account. If a second, stable income arrives, three months ($9,600) is a reasonable target and it is about 17 months away.

• Essential spending is what you would still pay with no income. If you included subscriptions and restaurants, your target is too high.
• The fund sits in cash you can reach in days, not in investments that might be down when you need them.
• You are not carrying high-interest credit card debt. If you are, a smaller buffer first and then the debt usually costs less overall.
• Health insurance continuity is not modeled. In the US, losing employer coverage is often the largest hidden cost of losing a job.

Finance Quest is educational. It is not financial advice, and no calculator here knows your full situation.

People take their whole monthly outflow, multiply by six, get a frightening number, and give up before starting. In an actual emergency you cut the gym, the streaming, the takeout and the vacation. Size the fund against what you cannot cut. The target gets smaller, it gets reachable, and a three-month fund that exists beats a six-month fund that never gets built.

• How big should an emergency fund be?Months of essential spending, and what moves the number.
• Where should your next dollar go?The usual order for your money, and where guides disagree.

• High-yield savingsCompare a high-yield rate against a big-bank rate on the same balance.
• Debt payoffCompare snowball and avalanche repayment strategies.
• Savings goal plannerFind the monthly contribution that reaches a goal by a target date.