Calculator
Emergency fund calculator
How big the fund needs to be, and when you get there at what you are putting aside now.
Only what you would still have to pay with no income: housing, food, utilities, transport, insurance, minimum debt payments.
What is already set aside and reachable within a day or two.
Leave at zero if you are not adding to it yet.
At $400 a month, the remaining $11,400 is covered by February 2029 — 2 years 5 mo from now.
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Common questions
How many months of expenses should an emergency fund cover?
Three to six months is the range most commonly cited, and twelve is common for anyone with variable income or a single income supporting a household. This calculator offers all four rather than picking for you, because the right answer depends on how quickly you could replace your income.
Does this include investment growth?
No, deliberately. An emergency fund sits in cash so it can be reached the same day, and modelling growth on it would overstate the balance and understate how long it takes to build. The figure here is straight arithmetic: what you set aside, added up.
Should essential spending include debt payments?
Include the minimum payments, because they still fall due if your income stops. Anything you pay above the minimum is a choice you could pause, so it belongs in the savings bucket rather than this one.
Why has the timeline disappeared?
Because nothing is being set aside each month. Rather than showing an infinite timeline, the calculator hides it and shows the gap instead.
Is anything I enter here stored or transmitted?
No. Everything is computed in your browser and nothing is kept. There is no account, no cookie and no analytics on this site.