How to use this calculator
- Enter your essential costs: what you would still pay each month with no paycheck, such as rent or a mortgage payment, food at home, insurance, utilities, transport and minimum debt payments. Leave out spending you would stop.
- Choose how many months without pay to plan for.
- Enter any income that would keep coming in, such as a partner’s take-home pay. If you both earn, enter the smaller paycheck.
- Enter what you have saved for emergencies (not your everyday checking balance) and what you can add each month.
- Tick any situations that apply: unemployment benefits, a large insurance bill, a wait before disability pay starts, lean months, or a checking buffer.
Under More options you can enter your savings account’s APY (0.38% by default) and the number of months you want to reach the target in. The numbers already filled in are an example. Replace them with your own.
How it's calculated
In one line: target = (essential costs − other income) × months − unemployment benefits counted up to the gap, or the gap × the disability wait if that is larger, + your largest bill + the lean-month buffer.
1. The gap without pay
The monthly gap is your essential costs less any other income that keeps coming in, and never less than zero. Losing your pay leaves that gap for each month you plan for. In the example, $4,100 a month for 6 months is $24,600.
2. Unemployment benefits
A weekly benefit is counted as 52 ÷ 12 weeks a month, for as many months as it lasts, and never more than the gap in any month, so a benefit above your costs does not pay for months after it stops. $500 a week for 26 weeks counts as $13,000 against six months of costs, leaving $11,600.
3. A disability, a large bill and lean months
A disability leaves the whole gap until any disability pay starts; unemployment benefits do not count, because states generally require you to be able and available to work. The calculator plans for one loss of income at a time, losing a job or a disability, whichever needs more: planning for two months without pay and a 90-day wait for disability pay, the wait sets the target at $12,300. A large bill, such as your health plan’s out-of-pocket maximum, is added on top (in the example, $29,600 in all), because a reserve spent on living costs is not there for the bill. Lean months add your essential costs less your lean-month take-home and other income, times the lean months in a row: $6,300 in the example, also on top, because that money is spent in an ordinary year.
4. How long it takes
Your savings start where they are. Each month the account earns interest at the monthly rate that compounds to your APY over a year, rounded to the cent, and then what you add lands at the end of the month. Crediting interest once a month and adding money at the end of each month are this calculator's assumptions; your bank may compound daily or credit on other dates, which moves the result by a little. In the example, $5,000 plus $500 a month at 0.38% reaches $24,600 in 39 months, with $179.59 of interest. The monthly amount for a date is the smallest that reaches the target by then: $813 a month for 24 months, rounded up to the dollar.
5. The checking buffer
With bills spread evenly, one pay period’s share of a month’s bills is the share of the month the period covers: 12 ÷ 26 when you are paid every two weeks. Add your cushion and that is the balance to have right after payday, so the account falls no lower than the cushion before the next one. It is not part of the target, and the money in it should not count as savings: $4,100 of bills and a $500 cushion give $2,392.
Assumptions and limits
- Essential costs stay the same every month. Costs a job loss changes, such as health insurance through work or commuting, are yours to include.
- Other household income continues unchanged, and income above your essential costs, from a partner’s pay or from benefits, is not counted toward the reserve.
- Unemployment benefits are counted from the first month, up to your costs each month. The first payment’s delay, the one-week unpaid waiting period some states have, and the tax due on benefits are not modeled: enter less if they apply.
- A disability covers only the time until any disability pay starts, at full costs. Paid sick leave and short-term disability count as pay. The gap between disability pay and your costs afterwards, and Social Security disability benefits, are not modeled.
- Interest is credited monthly at one rate throughout and is not taxed here. Deposits land at the end of each month, none is skipped, and nothing is taken out while you build the reserve.
- The checking buffer assumes bills spread evenly over the month and is the balance to have right after payday; bills that bunch before payday need more.
- The target is a planning figure. It does not guarantee that any particular emergency is covered.
- It does not cover inflation while you save, a business’s reserve, investing the reserve, insurance premiums after a job loss unless you include them in your costs, or the order of saving and paying off debt.
Input field details
What to enter in each box, where to find the number, and how this calculator treats it. When two calculators give different answers from the same numbers, it's usually because they handle one of these differently.
Essential costs per month
What you would still pay each month with no paycheck: your rent or mortgage payment, food at home, insurance, utilities, transport and minimum debt payments.
Where to find itYour bank and card statements for the last few months.
How this tool treats itThe target’s “months of costs” and the “months covered” by your savings are months of this amount. Costs a job loss would change, such as health insurance through work or commuting, are yours to adjust here. The starting $4,100 is the rounded monthly average of the 2025 average U.S. consumer unit’s yearly spending on housing, food at home, healthcare and transportation other than buying a vehicle ($49,220, BLS, Consumer Expenditures in 2025); enter your own.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a month
Months without pay to cover
How many months you want the reserve to pay your essential costs if your pay stops.
How this tool treats itPeople unemployed in October 2026 had been looking for work 27.1 weeks on average so far (median 11.9 weeks), and 27.6% for 27 weeks or more (BLS, The Employment Situation, Table A-12). Those are searches still under way, not how long a search lasts. “Show other choices of months” gives the target and the time to reach it at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
Allowed range1 to 24 months
Other income that keeps coming in
Take-home pay that would keep arriving if your pay stopped, such as a partner’s. If you both earn, the cautious choice is to plan for losing the larger paycheck: enter the smaller one here. Enter 0 if there is none.
Where to find itThe net pay on the pay stubs, after tax and deductions.
How this tool treats itIt reduces each month’s need, never below zero: income above your essential costs is not counted toward the reserve. It is taken to continue unchanged for as long as you plan for.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a month
Saved so far
The money you have set aside for emergencies only. Leave out your checking balance.
Where to find itYour savings or money market account statement.
How this tool treats itMonths covered divides this by your essential costs and rounds down to a tenth of a month, so it never shows more cover than you have.
Allowed range$0 to $10,000,000
Added each month
What you add to the reserve each month.
How this tool treats itAdded at the end of each month, after that month’s interest, and never skipped.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a month
Also plan for
Tick each situation that applies to you: Unemployment benefits, A large bill, A disability, Lean months or A checking buffer. Each shows its own fields; one left unticked changes nothing.
How this tool treats itUnemployment benefits lower the target. A large bill and lean months add to it. A disability raises it only when its wait costs more than the months without pay you chose, because one loss of pay replaces the other rather than adding to it. A checking buffer is kept apart from the reserve and never added to the target.
Unemployment benefit per week
The weekly benefit you expect from your state’s unemployment insurance.
Where to find itYour state unemployment agency’s estimate of your benefit.
How this tool treats it$500 is the U.S. average weekly benefit before tax in the second quarter of 2026 (U.S. Department of Labor); states range widely. Benefits are taxable, so enter less if tax will be due. Each month counts the benefit only up to that month’s costs less other income, from the first month without pay. It generally takes two to three weeks after you file to receive the first payment, and that delay is not counted.
Allowed range$0 to $3,000 a week
Weeks of benefits
How many weeks your state would pay benefits.
Where to find itYour state unemployment agency.
How this tool treats itBenefits can be paid for a maximum of 26 weeks in most states (U.S. Department of Labor). A week is 12/52 of a month, so 26 weeks covers 6 months; months after the benefit stops are not covered by it.
Allowed range1 to 52 weeks
Largest deductible or out-of-pocket maximum
The largest single bill your insurance could leave you with: your health plan’s out-of-pocket maximum, or your home or auto deductible. If one event could bring two bills, enter their total.
Where to find itYour health plan’s summary of benefits and coverage, or your home or auto policy.
How this tool treats itAdded on top of the months of costs: an illness or injury that stops your pay can also bring this bill, and a layoff and an unrelated bill can fall in the same months.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000
Disability pay starts after
The time until any disability pay would start. Count paid sick leave and short-term disability as pay: choose the time until any of them would start.
Where to find itYour employer’s benefits summary or your disability policy, which states its waiting period.
How this tool treats itEach 30 days counts as a month of essential costs less other income, so 90 days is 3 months. Unemployment benefits do not reduce it, because you must be able to work to claim them. Most workers in long-term disability plans have a waiting period of 3 to 6 months, or until sick leave or short-term disability benefits end (BLS). With no disability insurance, nothing is added, and a notice explains why.
Take-home in a lean month
Your own take-home pay in a slow month.
Where to find itThe deposits into your account in your slowest months of the last year or two.
How this tool treats itEach lean month needs your essential costs less other income less this amount. That shortfall is added to the target, because it is spent in an ordinary year and is not there for an emergency.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a month
Lean months in a row
The longest run of lean months you expect.
Allowed range1 to 12 months
Bills paid from checking each month
The bills that come out of your checking account in a month.
Where to find itYour checking account statements.
How this tool treats itTaken as spread evenly over the month, so one pay period carries 12/52 of a month’s bills if you are paid every week, 12/26 every two weeks, half twice a month, and all of them once a month.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a month
You’re paid
How often your paycheck arrives.
Where to find itYour pay stubs.
Cushion on top
The lowest balance you want your checking account to reach before the next payday.
How this tool treats itThe buffer is one pay period’s bills plus this cushion: the balance to have right after each payday, not a floor to keep at all times. Bills that bunch up just before payday need more. It is kept apart from the reserve.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000
Savings account yield (APY)
The annual percentage yield your savings account pays.
Where to find itYour account’s rate disclosure or your online banking.
How this tool treats it0.38% is the FDIC’s national average rate for savings accounts as of October 19, 2026. Interest is credited at the end of each month at the monthly rate that compounds to the APY over a year, rounded to the cent, and is shown before tax.
Allowed range0% to 10%
Reach it in
How many months from now you want to reach the target.
How this tool treats itGives the smallest monthly amount, rounded up to a whole dollar, that reaches the target within that many months at your APY. It can be more than the Added each month field allows.
Allowed range1 to 120 months
Questions
How many months of expenses should an emergency fund cover?
Should I count my partner’s income?
Do unemployment benefits replace an emergency fund?
How much should I keep in checking?
Where should I keep an emergency fund?
Should I build an emergency fund or pay off debt first?
Version history
- November 7, 2026 (version 1.0.0): First version: an emergency fund target from your essential costs and months without pay, with unemployment benefits, a large bill, a disability wait and lean months as options, the time to reach it, and a separate checking buffer.