Emergency Fund Target Calculator

The annual percentage yield the account pays, as the bank quotes it, before any tax. It is read as an effective annual rate, so twelve months at the monthly rate compound to exactly this figure; dividing a nominal rate by twelve instead gives a slightly shorter time at the same number. The FDIC put the national average savings rate at 0.37 percent in September 2026, while the top of Bankrate's list of high-yield accounts paid 4.20 percent.

How many months the fund should carry the gap between essential spending and any income that would continue, if your pay stopped. Published guidance runs from three to six months for most households to eight or twelve for a single earner or an irregular income. The verdict compares the months you choose with the median and the average spell of unemployment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures this calculator carries. A whole number of months, at least one.

Optional. The combined rate of income tax you pay on savings interest, federal and state together. Leave it blank if the interest is untaxed or the tax is paid from other money, and it reads as nothing. The APY is reduced by this share before it compounds, so a 4 percent APY taxed at 25 percent grows the fund at 3 percent a year.

Optional. A separate reserve for an unexpected bill such as a car repair or a medical expense, kept apart from the months of cover. Leave it blank and it reads as the share of a month of essential spending that Vanguard's rule sets for spending shocks; enter 0 to size the fund on months alone. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey 59 percent of adults had a major unexpected expense in the year, against 7 percent who were laid off.

Optional. Money already set aside for emergencies, in an account you could draw on at once. Leave it blank if you are starting from nothing, and it reads as nothing. It counts toward the target and earns interest from the first month, so what is still to save, the share already saved and every month count start from it.

Optional. Income that would keep coming in if your own pay stopped: a partner's pay, a pension, or the unemployment benefit you expect. Leave it blank and it reads as none, so the months of cover pay for all the essential spending, which is what published guidance assumes. Entered, only the gap it leaves is covered, and income at or above the essential spending leaves the fund sized for surprise bills alone.

What you can put into the fund at the end of each month. Every month count here is worked out at this figure, and the table shows what each step up or down from it is worth. Zero is accepted, and then only the interest on what is already saved builds the fund.

What the household has to pay in a month to keep going: housing, utilities, food at home, insurance, transportation, health care, minimum debt payments and childcare, with anything you could stop paying for left out. The fund is sized on this rather than on everything you spend, as Fidelity sizes it. Households in the middle fifth of incomes spent about 3,937 a month on housing, food at home, transportation and health care alone in 2024. The needs total from the 50/30/20 Budget Split calculator can be entered here: a total below 500 enters as 500, one above 28,000 as 28,000, and it rounds to the nearest 5.

The values across the top of the table: the months of cover, in equal steps either side of yours and never below the table's floor. Read a column to hold the months fixed and vary the contribution. The middle entry is your own figure; for a short cover the lowest entries repeat at that floor, which is the table running out of room rather than an error.

Machinery, and NOT an input. The same for the column axis: Excel substitutes into it while filling the table, and the rest of the time it mirrors the months of cover.

The layer of the target kept for surprise bills: the reserve you entered, or, when that is left blank, the share of a month of essential spending that Vanguard's rule sets for spending shocks. It is not spent on a job loss in this calculation, because a surprise bill is far more likely than a layoff and the two are separate goals.

How many months of contributions, with interest, it takes before the savings first reach the whole target, a balance within half a cent counting as there. Zero means the savings already meet it. A count equal to the horizon the model looks ahead means the target is not reached within that horizon at this contribution, and the status line says so. This is the figure the table tabulates.

How far the savings already set aside are from the target, never below nothing.

The body of the table: the months until the savings first reach the whole target, worked out again for every combination of the two axes. A value equal to the horizon the model looks ahead means the target is not reached within it at that pair. In an answered state zero means the savings already meet the target at that pair; when the inputs are refused, a pair whose own values are refused also reads zero. One hundred and twenty-one values, each the whole calculation run again; it is a component of the table rather than a result on its own.

The target divided by the essential spending, so it can be set beside the three to six months most guidance quotes. It is more than the months of cover by the reserve, and less when other income would continue.

Machinery, and NOT an input. Excel substitutes each value from the row axis into this mirror while it fills the table; the rest of the time it mirrors the monthly contribution. Change the contribution, never this: the axis is derived from it, so editing the mirror moves the axis while the table walks and the table comes out meaningless.

Machinery. Excel requires the figure being tabulated to sit in the table's top-left corner, where it means nothing to a reader, so it is formatted away. It holds the months until the whole target is saved.

The values down the left of the table: the monthly contribution, in equal steps either side of yours and never below the table's floor, so for a small contribution the top entries repeat at that floor. Read a row to hold the contribution fixed and vary the months of cover. The middle entry is your own contribution.

How many months of contributions, with interest, it takes before the savings cover the reserve for surprise bills, a balance within half a cent counting as there. Zero means it is already covered. A count equal to the horizon the model looks ahead means the reserve is not reached within that horizon.

How the months of cover compare with the median and the average spell of unemployment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures this calculator carries, each turned from weeks into months. The reserve for surprise bills is left out of the comparison. The measure counts spells still running when the survey was taken, not finished ones, so it is a guide to how long people go without work rather than a forecast of your own.

The fund to aim for: the reserve for surprise bills plus the months of cover. It is in today's dollars and makes no allowance for inflation, which leaves the same fund covering less each year it is not topped up.

What you will have paid in by the month the target is reached: the monthly contribution times the months. Blank when the target is not reached within the horizon the model looks ahead.

The APY less the tax on its interest: the rate the fund grows at in this calculation. It equals the APY when no tax rate is entered.

The level amount a month that would reach the target in two years at the same rate, allowing for what is already saved. It is nothing when the savings reach the target on interest alone within that time.

Reads OK, or explains why the inputs are not valid or why the answer deserves a second look.

The part of essential spending the fund would have to pay each month if your pay stopped: the spending less any income that would continue, never below nothing. With no continuing income entered it is the whole essential spending.

The interest the account will have paid by the month the target is reached, after any tax on it. At a low rate it is a small part of the target, which is the plainest measure of what the account's rate is worth. Blank when the target is not reached within the horizon the model looks ahead.

The savings already set aside as a share of the target, never above 100 percent.

The layer of the target that covers a loss of income: the monthly gap multiplied by the months of cover. At that gap it lasts exactly the months you chose, which is why the months, and not the whole target, are what the verdict on unemployment compares.