Emergency Fund Calculator

Size your emergency fund on core fixed costs and your real job risk, then see how many months it takes to build at your savings rate and what it earns in a high-yield account.

The usual advice is three to six months of expenses. This calculator does better: it sizes the fund on the bills you cannot stop paying, adjusts the target for how exposed you actually are, and tells you how long the plan takes.

Core monthly fixed costs

Housing, utilities, food, insurance, transport, minimum debt payments. Not your full take-home.

Income stability Dependents High-deductible health plan or older home/car Already saved

Monthly amount you can save

Savings account APY

How the calculator works

It starts from three months of core fixed costs, then adds months for the things that make an income shock bigger or more likely: a single salaried income (+2), commission or self-employment (+5), dependents (+1), and a high deductible or expensive assets that break (+1), capped at 12 months. Sizing on fixed costs rather than income typically cuts the target by a quarter to a third, because discretionary spending stops in an emergency anyway.

Time to fund assumes your monthly deposit plus monthly compounding at the APY you enter. Interest is small during the build but meaningful once the fund is full: a $20,000 fund at 4% earns about $800 a year while it waits.

Where to keep it

An FDIC-insured high-yield savings account or a money market account, in your name, with same-day access. Not a CD, not a brokerage account, not your checking account.

Frequently asked

Is $10,000 a good emergency fund?

It covers about three months for a household with $3,300 of core monthly costs. Whether that is enough depends on income stability and dependents; run your own numbers above.

Should I build an emergency fund or pay off debt first?

With credit-card APRs above 20%, hold one month of core costs in cash, then direct the surplus at the debt, then finish the fund.

Does my Roth IRA count as an emergency fund?

Contributions can be withdrawn without tax or penalty, so it is a backstop, but selling investments in a downturn to cover an emergency is exactly what the fund is meant to prevent.