Emergency fund calculator

What this calculator does

It turns 'keep a few months of expenses in cash' into an actual figure: yours. Tell it what your essentials cost each month, how you earn, who depends on you, and how you are housed, and it hands back three targets: a starter buffer, an intermediate one, and the full fund, with the working shown underneath. Nothing is stored and nobody emails you.

How this calculator works

Your target is your own monthly essential spending multiplied by a number of months. The months are our editorial starting point per market, reflecting how strong the local safety net is (Germany's Kurzarbeit and unemployment insurance argue for fewer months than the UK's thinner cushion, for example), then adjusted for how stable your income is, who depends on it, and whether a roof payment is on the line. Every adjustment is shown in the breakdown above, and you can change the base months yourself under advanced options. These are rules of thumb, not regulations: no European authority prescribes an emergency fund size. Consumer bodies across Europe frame it the same way. Germany's Verbraucherzentrale suggests keeping two to three months' salary accessible ("zwei bis drei Monatsgehälter") on an instant-access Tagesgeldkonto, and calls it explicitly a rule of thumb ("Daumenregel") that depends on your individual situation (verbraucherzentrale.de, verified 2026-06-11). The Netherlands' Nibud goes further and declines to give one number at all: the right buffer "verschilt per huishouden" (differs per household), which is why its BufferBerekenaar asks about your living situation first (nibud.nl, verified 2026-06-11). That personalised approach is the one this tool takes. The floor and ceiling are our own guardrails: we never suggest a buffer too small to absorb a real shock, and beyond the ceiling your money usually works harder invested than parked.

When to use it (and when not)

Use it again whenever your circumstances change: a contract turning permanent, a child arriving, or rent giving way to a mortgage. Each one moves the target, and the point of a personalised number is that it stays yours. Treat the starter buffer as permission to begin, not evidence of failure. And when the fund is genuinely full, stop: cash beyond the ceiling is comfort you pay for in lost returns, and the investment calculator will happily show you the price.

This calculator gives educational guidance, not financial advice. The months-of-expenses defaults are Money Owl editorial assumptions based on the strength of each market's social safety net, and you can change them. Amounts shown are illustrative; your real number depends on circumstances no calculator can see. For decisions about your own money, talk to a regulated adviser in your market.