Emergency fund calculator
Everyone repeats that you should keep six months of expenses saved. But six months does not mean the same thing for someone on a permanent contract with two salaries coming in as it does for a freelancer with children. This calculator adjusts the buffer to your situation and shows where each month comes from.
- Runs on your phone, not on a server
- We store nothing
- No sign-up, no ads
Your numbers
Enter a normal month's expenses, not the best or the worst. If in doubt, round up.
Your buffer should be
n/d
Fill in the fields to see your result.
- One month of expenses
- n/d
- Months of buffer
- n/d
- Still missing
- n/d
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What an emergency fund is for (and what it is not)
An emergency fund is money available immediately to cover what you did not plan for: losing your job, a breakdown on the car you depend on, a medical or dental emergency, an appliance that dies.
Its job is not to earn a return, it is to stop a surprise from turning into expensive debt or forcing you to sell investments at the worst moment. A buffer that earns little but is always available does its job better than one that earns more and takes a week to reach you.
It is also not the holiday pot or the new-car pot. Those are savings goals: they have a date and are planned separately. Mix them and the buffer gets spent on something that was never an emergency.
Where the recommended months come from
There is no flat «six months» here. It starts at three months, the reasonable minimum for almost anyone, and adds time based on what genuinely changes your risk of losing income:
Buffer = One month of expenses × Adjusted monthsThe result is capped between 3 and 12 months. Below 3 it barely covers anything; above 12, idle money starts costing more than it protects.
- Temporary contract: +1.5 months. Higher risk of interruption and shorter notice.
- Self-employed or variable income: +3 months. No severance, limited unemployment cover, and income that already fluctuates.
- Single income household: +1 month. Without a second income, a drop is total rather than partial.
- Each dependant: +0.5 months, up to four. More mouths, less room to cut spending quickly.
- Expensive debt: +1 month. With cards or revolving credit, running short costs far more than it does with a mortgage.
Which expenses to count
Count what you would spend in a lean month, not your usual spending. If your income stopped, the gym and eating out go in month one; rent, electricity and food do not.
That distinction matters because it moves the target a lot. With €2,500 of usual spending but €1,800 of minimum spending, a six-month buffer drops from €15,000 to €10,800. It protects you just the same and it is a far more reachable goal.
Where to keep it, and how not to spend it
It has to be available in days, not weeks, and kept apart from your day-to-day account. A separate savings account is usually enough: if you see it every time you check your balance, it will end up mixed in with everything else.
In Neto you can set the buffer up as its own account or goal, see how far along you are, and keep it from blending into your spending money. And if you dip into it one month, you will see it drop and know it needs topping back up.
The other calculators
Frequently asked questions
Three, six or twelve months?
It depends how stable your income is and how many people depend on you. Three months is the minimum on a permanent contract with another salary at home; nine or more makes sense if you are self-employed with dependants. The calculator makes that adjustment and shows where each month comes from.
Do I count normal or minimum expenses?
Minimum: what you would keep paying no matter what. Housing, utilities, food, transport, insurance and loan repayments. Leisure and extras cut themselves in an emergency.
Should the emergency fund be invested?
Its priority is being available and not losing value exactly when you need it. Any product that can fall or takes days to settle serves that purpose worse, however much more it returns.
What if I am a long way from the target?
Start with an interim goal of one month of expenses, that is the one that prevents most small shocks. Enter how much you can save monthly and the calculator gives you the timeline to the full buffer.
Expensive debt: save or pay it down?
The usual approach is to build a small one-month buffer first and then attack expensive debt, because without a buffer any surprise creates debt again. It is a personal decision and this tool does not make it for you.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculation is local, in your browser, and nothing is sent to any server.