Check your emergency fund
See how many months your savings would cover if your income stopped, choose what counts, and set a target.
An emergency fund is money you can reach quickly if something goes wrong, such as losing your job or an unexpected bill. Emergency fund shows how many months your savings would cover your spending if your income stopped completely, and how far you are from a target. It helps you see whether you have a safety net, and how big it should be.
Before you start
Emergency fund needs two things:
- A savings account, so there is money to count. If you see Add a savings account to see your runway, click Add an account. See Import a bank statement.
- Your monthly spending. If you see Add your monthly expenses to size your emergency fund, click Add your expenses to set up your budgets. See Create a budget.
Read your emergency fund
Open Emergency fund. At the top you see:
- How many months your savings would last, and how much money is counted against how much you spend a month.
- A status, from Under funded and Building to Nearly funded, Fully funded or Above target.
- Your target, in months and dollars, with a bar showing your progress.
- How much you have to go, and roughly how long that will take at your current saving rate. Or how much you are above target.
The figure assumes your income stops completely for the whole time. It is the cautious figure on purpose.
Set your target
Finsplore suggests a target based on your situation. Click Why this target? to see where it came from. To use your own:
- Under Your target, in months of spending, enter a whole number of months, from 1 to 60.
- Click Set target.
To go back to Finsplore's suggestion, click Use the recommended target.
Choose what counts
Click Settings on the Emergency fund page to change what goes into the figure. Changes take effect straight away.
What counts as liquid
Money you can reach instantly always counts. Choose whether to also count:
- Breakable deposits: can be taken out early, usually losing some interest.
- Listed investments: can be sold in days, but the price on the day is not guaranteed.
- Locked deposits: cannot be reached before they mature.
- Count investments whose value can fall: you might get less than they are worth today.
Below the switches, each of your accounts is marked Counted or Not counted, with the reason.
What counts as expenses
Choose the spending your fund needs to cover. Each option shows what it costs a month:
- Essential only
- Essential and committed
- Everything you spend
Credit card balances are not taken off this figure. If you carry a credit card balance, the money you could really use is lower.
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