Emergency Fund Calculator
Work out how big your emergency fund needs to be, based on your actual essential outgoings, then see exactly how many months it will take to get there.
General guidance only. This is a general guide, not personalised financial advice, everyone's essential spending and risk tolerance is different. Figures are illustrative estimates based on the amounts you enter.
Enter your essential outgoings
Your target emergency fund, the gap to your current savings and how long it will take to build appear here as you type.
How this is worked out
We add up your essential monthly outgoings, rent or mortgage, bills, food and transport, and multiply by your chosen number of months' cover to get your target. "Essential" means the spending you couldn't easily cut in an emergency: it deliberately excludes subscriptions, eating out, holidays and other discretionary spending, so your fund is sized to your true bare-minimum survival budget, not your normal lifestyle.
The gap is simply your target minus what you've already saved toward it, and the time to build is that gap divided by your monthly saving, rounded up to the next whole month. No interest is assumed here, an emergency fund should sit in an easy-access account you can reach instantly, so the exact rate matters much less than being able to get the money out fast.
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