Emergency Fund Calculator

Currency

Expenses a month

Months of cover

Saved already

You put aside a month

Savings account rate, %

Result

Target

$360,000.00

Still to save

$280,000.00

Months to the target

That in years

1.4

Months covered right now

1.3

Of that, interest

$42,684.36

This result is informational only and is not professional advice.

Measured in months of expenses, not in round numbers

Works out how large an emergency fund should be for your expenses and how many months of saving it will take to build it.

An emergency fund is not a round sum, it is a length of time. Its job is to cover the gap between losing an income and finding the next one, which is why it is measured in months of spending rather than in units of money.

Three months is the usual floor and six is the common target. A freelancer, a single earner in a household, or anyone in a narrow field should think in terms of nine or twelve.

What this calculator shows

The target sum and how much of it is still missing
How many months of saving are left at the current pace
How many months you are already covered for, and the interest earned on the way

What to keep in mind

Interest is added monthly to the balance, which fits a savings account rather than a fixed-term deposit.
The monthly contribution is constant. In practice it rarely is, so treat the timeline as the optimistic version.

FAQs

How many months should a fund cover?

Three as a minimum, six as a working target. If your income is irregular or your profession hires slowly, nine to twelve is the safer number.

Where should the money sit?

Somewhere it can be withdrawn the same day without losing interest. A fund locked in a fixed-term deposit is not an emergency fund.

Should I build a fund or pay off debt first?

A small buffer first — one month or so — then the expensive debt, then the rest of the fund. Without a buffer the next unexpected bill goes back onto the credit card.

Does the fund need to grow with inflation?

It grows with your expenses, which is the same thing in practice. Recalculate it whenever the monthly spending changes noticeably.

Worked example

Six months of cover

Input: 60,000 a month of expenses, six months, 80,000 saved, 15,000 a month, 14 percent

Output: 17 months to the target

Note: The target is 360,000 and 280,000 is missing. Without interest that would take almost nineteen months; the savings account takes nearly two months off.

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Emergency Fund Calculator

Result

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