What this calculator works out
An emergency fund is the boring pot of cash that turns emergencies back into inconveniences. Without one, every unexpected cost — the car, the boiler, the vet — becomes debt, usually expensive debt, and the hole gets deeper each time. With one, the same events are annoying and then over.
The standard answer to ‘how much?’ is three to six months of essential outgoings, held in an instant-access account — that is the guidance from MoneyHelper, the free service run by the government-backed Money and Pensions Service. Three to six is a wide range though, and where you should sit in it depends on how likely your income is to stop and how quickly it would come back. This calculator places you in that range and shows you exactly why.
The method, in full
It starts at three months — the bottom of the standard range — and adds months for the things that make a loss of income more likely, or its consequences worse. The adjustments are these:
- Employed, permanent, feels secure — no addition.
- Employed but fixed-term, on probation or at risk — add one month.
- Self-employed, or income that varies month to month — add one and a half months. Variable income means the buffer is doing two jobs: covering emergencies and smoothing the lean months.
- You are the only earner in the household — add half a month. A second income is itself a form of insurance.
- One other person depends on your income — add half a month; two or more — add one month.
The total is capped at six months, the top of the standard range. Multiply the months by your monthly survival number and that is the target. Divide the cash you already hold by the survival number and that is the cover you have now. The difference is the gap; the gap divided by what you can save each month is how long it takes.
The three-to-six-month range is established guidance and is cited above. The step-by-step adjustment within that range is a Buzz Money Coach rule of thumb, not an official figure — which is exactly why the calculator shows every step of it on screen instead of just handing you an answer. If you think your job is safer or shakier than the categories suggest, override it and use your own judgement. You know your situation; a calculator does not.
The assumptions, stated plainly
- Months are of survival spending, not full spending. Six months of everything you currently spend is a much larger and much more demoralising target than you actually need, because in a real emergency you would cut back anyway.
- No interest is added. The calculator does not assume any growth on your savings. Interest on an instant-access account is real but small, and leaving it out means the answer is never flattering.
- No inflation is applied. Both the target and your saving are in today's money, which keeps the comparison honest over the sort of one-to-three-year horizon most people are working with.
- Cash means cash you can reach this week. Money in a fixed-term bond, a pension, or investments does not count. The whole point of this pot is that it is there, in full, on the worst day — not down twenty per cent exactly when you need it.
- Your figures stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
Start with £500, not with the target
Six months of expenses is a big, distant number, and aiming straight at it is how people give up in week three. Aim at £500 first. That single first step does most of the psychological work, because £500 covers the large majority of life's small disasters — the tyre, the vet, the emergency plumber — and the moment you have it the low-level dread starts to lift. The calculator shows £500, one month, three months and six months as separate milestones for exactly that reason.
After that, the mechanism matters more than the motivation. Set a standing order for the day after payday, into an account at a different bank from your current account, and let it run. Willpower is finite and runs out by Thursday; a standing order does not get tired. Sweep in the one-offs too — a tax refund, a bonus, birthday money — because those are the fast lane to the first £500.
Where it should sit
Two rules, gently in tension, and both matter. It should be separate from your current account so you do not spend it without noticing, and instant-access so you can actually reach it in an emergency. An easy-access savings account or a cash ISA both do the job. We cannot tell you which account or provider to use — that would be a regulated recommendation and we are not authorised to make one — but the two rules above are not a product choice, they are just how the pot needs to behave.
If you would like to work through your own numbers with a coach, the free Financial Freedom Score takes about seven minutes and gives you one clear next step. Or start with the survival budget calculator if you have not worked out the number this one runs on.