Emergency Fund Calculator

The usual guideline is three to six months of expenses, and the word doing the work is expenses, not income. What you need to survive a gap is rent, utilities, food, transport, insurance and minimum debt payments, which is generally well below what you actually spend in a normal month.

Where it sits changes what it earns. The national average savings account paid 0.37% (FDIC national rates, 21 September 2026); accounts advertised as high-yield have been paying several times that for the same federal insurance and the same instant access. The balance should stay somewhere you can reach the same day, which rules out anything with a withdrawal penalty.