What counts as essential
Only what you would still have to pay if your income stopped tomorrow. Rent or mortgage, food, utilities, insurance, transport to work, minimum debt payments. Not holidays, not subscriptions you would cancel, not eating out.
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Emergency fund calculator
An emergency fund is not a round number someone else picked. It is your own unavoidable monthly costs, multiplied by how long you want to be covered. Work out both, and how long the gap would take to close.
Month to month
What you must pay each month
How many months
Three months is the common starting point. Six is the usual advice for a single income or an unpredictable one. Freelancers and anyone in a slow-hiring field often want nine or twelve. There is no correct answer, only the one that lets you sleep.
Where to keep it
Somewhere reachable within a day or two, and separate enough that you do not spend it by accident. An emergency fund that is invested is not an emergency fund, because emergencies do not wait for a good day to sell.
When to use it
A real loss of income, an urgent repair, a medical cost. Not an opportunity, and not a sale. Using it is the fund working as intended, not a failure — refill it afterwards and carry on.
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