How Much Emergency Savings Do You Need?

Choose a realistic emergency-fund target and build it in stages.

An emergency fund is cash reserved for genuine disruption: lost income, urgent repairs, medical travel, or another unavoidable shock.

Build it in stages

1. Starter buffer: enough to stop a small problem becoming new debt.
2. One month of essential spending: a meaningful first milestone.
3. Three to six months: a stronger reserve for unstable income or higher responsibilities.

Keep it accessible

Emergency money should normally be easy to reach and separate from everyday spending. The purpose is reliability, not maximum return.

Adjust for your circumstances

Self-employed households, single-income households and people with variable work may prefer a larger reserve. Stable income and strong insurance cover may justify a smaller target.

Put it into practice

Use the connected calculator, save the result to your dashboard and review the figure during your next monthly check-in.