How big should your emergency fund actually be?
The textbook "3-6 months of expenses" is too coarse. A single-income household with kids and gig work needs a very different buffer from a dual-earner stable couple. Score your real risk profile, see the recommended target, and find out how many months of saving stand between you and full coverage.
How to use this in 60 seconds
- Enter survival expenses, not lifestyle expenses — strip out eating out, subscriptions, gym, hobbies. Emergency fund is supposed to cover the floor while you find a new job, not preserve your current quality of life.
- Be honest about job stability — "stable" should mean strong tenure or in-demand industry. If you've been laid off twice in the last decade or your role is being actively automated, that's "moderate" at best.
- Read the risk-factor breakdown — the recommendation is one number, but the reasoning is the value. If you disagree with the score, the audit list shows you exactly which factors moved it.
Why a risk-scored target beats "3-6 months"
The 3-6 months rule was popularized when most personal-finance writers wrote for stable salaried workers in single-income households. Today, dual-earner couples in tech absorb shocks differently from solo gig workers with kids. The same number can't serve both.
We score four factors: income concentration (single vs dual earner), dependents (financial weight that can't flex down), job stability (time-to-rehire risk), and unemployment-insurance protection (partial bridge if you have it). Each factor adds 0-3 risk points, and the total maps to 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 months.
The model is intentionally simple. The point isn't precision — it's that you can see exactly which factors moved the recommendation and adjust if you think the weighting is wrong for your situation.
All math runs in your browser. We don't store your inputs. Source on github.
Where this framework breaks
- Healthcare-dominant risk: US households without good employer insurance face medical-shock risk that can dwarf job-loss risk. The model doesn't price this; if a single ER visit could be $20K, consider one full bracket up.
- High-asset, low-liquid: if you have $500K in investments but $5K in cash, your "emergency fund" includes the option to liquidate — at the cost of selling at a bad time. Real emergency cash is better.
- Inflation: a $30K target this year is a smaller target next year. Re-run annually.