How many months should an emergency fund cover?

A common guide is three to six months of essential expenses, more if your income is variable or you are a single earner. The right size depends on your job security, dependants and other safety nets.

How do I work out my emergency fund in months?

Divide your current savings by your monthly essential expenses. That gives the months of runway your fund provides if your income stopped, which is the figure that really matters in an emergency.

Should I count all my spending or just essentials?

Use essential expenses, the costs you could not avoid such as rent or mortgage, food, power and transport, since in a real emergency you would cut back on discretionary spending. This gives a longer, more realistic runway.

Emergency Fund Months Calculator

This calculator works out how many months of essential expenses your current emergency savings would cover in New Zealand, which is a far more useful measure of financial security than the dollar figure sitting in your account. You enter your current emergency savings, your essential expenses per month (the costs you could not avoid if your income stopped, such as rent or mortgage, food, power and transport), and a target number of months you would like covered. The calculator divides your savings by your monthly expenses to show the months of runway you have right now, then compares that with your target to work out the dollar amount you are aiming for and how much more you still need to save to get there, or confirms you have already reached it. A common guide is three to six months of essential expenses, more if your income is variable, you are self-employed, or you are the only earner in your household. Use discretionary spending, like takeaways or subscriptions, as the first thing you would cut in a real emergency, which is why the calculator focuses on essentials rather than your total budget. This is a planning estimate to help you judge your own resilience, not a guarantee of what you would need in an actual emergency.

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Current emergency savings

Essential expenses per month

Target months of cover

months of essential expenses your savings cover

Your target$0

Still to save$0

Use essential expenses, the costs you could not avoid, since in a real emergency you would trim discretionary spending. Three to six months is a common guide, more if your income is variable. Estimate only.

How it works

The calculator divides your current savings by your essential monthly expenses to show the months of runway your fund gives you if your income stopped. It compares that with your target months to work out the target dollar amount and how much more you need to save to reach it, or confirms you are already there. Measuring in months, not dollars, is what tells you how secure you really are.

Worked example

With $12,000 saved and $3,500 of essential expenses a month, your fund covers about 3.4 months. For a 6 month target you would need $21,000, so there is about $9,000 still to save to reach a full six months of security.

Related calculators

Emergency Fund Calculator: size your fund.
Savings Goal Calculator: reach a target.
Budget Calculator: your expenses.
Sinking Fund Calculator: known costs.

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