Emergency Fund Calculator

An emergency fund is cash set aside for an expense you did not plan for: losing a job, a medical bill, an urgent car or home repair. Its size should come from what you must keep paying when income stops, not from what you earn. The calculator adds up your essential monthly costs, subtracts any income that would keep arriving, multiplies by the number of months you want to cover and compares the result with what you have saved.

It then shows how many months your current savings would last, how much is left to save, and how long it will take at the amount you can set aside each month, including interest from a savings account. The chart tracks the balance month by month until it meets the target.

Monthly need = essential expenses − continuing income

Target = monthly need × months of coverage

Months covered now = current savings ÷ monthly need

Months to target = ln((T × r + C) ÷ (B × r + C)) ÷ ln(1 + r)

T is the target, B your current balance, C the amount you add each month and r the monthly interest rate, found from the account's APY as (1 + APY)^1/12 − 1 because banks quote APY with compounding already included. This is the spreadsheet function NPER, rounded up to a whole month. With no interest it reduces to (T − B) ÷ C.

Single earner, $3,000 a month of essentials

Six months of cover means a target of 6 × $3,000 = $18,000. The $2,000 already saved lasts 0.67 months. Saving $400 a month in an account paying 3% APY closes the $16,000 gap in 38 months, with $911 of that coming from interest.

A couple where one income would continue

Essentials are $5,200 a month, but if one partner lost their job the other's $3,400 take-home pay would keep coming in. The fund only needs to cover the $1,800 difference, so six months is $10,800. Their $4,000 already covers 2.2 months, and $400 a month finishes the job in 17 months. Planning against the full $5,200 would instead call for $31,200.

How long $15,000 takes to save from zero at 3% APY

The monthly rate behind the second table is 0.2466%.

There is no official number. Three to six months of essential expenses is a commonly suggested range, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau encourages starting with any amount and building from there, since even a small fund keeps a minor emergency from going onto a credit card. Lean toward more months when:

• your household depends on one income, or your pay is irregular (self-employed, commission, seasonal work);
• you have children or other dependents, or high fixed costs you cannot cut quickly;
• jobs like yours take a long time to find, or you have health conditions that could bring large bills.

Unemployment insurance can cover part of a gap after a layoff. In most states benefits last up to 26 weeks and replace only part of previous wages, and they are not available to people who quit or are self-employed in most cases. Check your state's program before counting on it.

An emergency fund needs to be safe and quick to reach, so it usually belongs in a savings or money market deposit account at a bank or credit union, not in stocks. Deposits at FDIC-insured banks are covered up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category, and credit union deposits have matching NCUA coverage. Savings rates move with interest rates generally, so enter your own account's current APY rather than relying on the default.