How much should I have in my emergency fund?

Generally 3-6 months of essential expenses. Calculate your monthly costs for housing, utilities, food, transport and insurance, then multiply by your target months.

Where should I keep my emergency fund?

A high-interest savings account offers good returns while keeping money accessible. Avoid term deposits that lock your money away.

Should I pay off debt or build an emergency fund first?

Build a small emergency fund first ($1,000-2,000) to avoid going deeper into debt when emergencies hit. Then focus on high-interest debt before building the full fund.

Emergency Fund Calculator

Work out how much to save for an emergency (months of expenses) and how long to reach your target.

Enter your monthly essential expenses and how many months of cover you want. Add current savings and monthly contribution to see how long until you reach the target. Estimate only.

Emergency Fund

Target = expenses times months of cover.

Monthly Expenses ($)

Months of Cover

Current Savings ($)

Monthly Contribution ($)

Interest Rate (% p.a.)

Emergency Fund Target

Target and shortfall

Target amount

$24,000

$22,195 in today's dollars

Target reached

Time to target

38 months

Estimate only. Many advisers suggest 3 to 6 months of expenses.

How to Use This Calculator

1Enter your monthly essential expenses (rent, food, utilities, transport)
2Choose how many months of cover you want (3-6 is typical)
3Enter your current emergency savings
4Add your planned monthly contribution
5See your target amount and time to reach it

What Is an Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund is money set aside specifically to cover unexpected expenses or income loss. It acts as a financial safety net so you don't need to rely on credit cards or loans when things go wrong.

Most financial advisers recommend saving 3-6 months of essential expenses. If you're self-employed or have variable income, aim for the higher end.

How Much Do You Need?

Essential expenses only: Include rent, utilities, food, transport and insurance - not discretionary spending.
Job security: Secure employment? 3 months may suffice. Casual or contract? Aim for 6+.
Dependants: Supporting a family increases the need for a larger buffer.
Other income sources: Partner's income or rental income may reduce your required amount.

Building Your Emergency Fund

•Keep emergency savings in a high-interest savings account - accessible but separate from daily spending
•Start small if needed - even $1,000 covers most minor emergencies
•Automate contributions so you save consistently without thinking about it
•Only use it for true emergencies - job loss, medical bills or essential repairs

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources

Moneysmart — save for an emergency fund

Estimates only. Not financial or tax advice. Full disclaimer for your rights and our limitations of liability.

About this calculator

This calculator exists to show you the arithmetic. It applies published Australian rates, thresholds and formulas to the numbers you enter and shows the working, so you can check it. That is all it does — it produces a number and describes what the number is. It does not recommend anything and it holds no opinion about any financial product.

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Interest earned on the fund — nil. Zero is deliberate rather than a placeholder. An emergency fund's purpose is immediate availability, so it belongs in an at-call account whose return is small and variable, and assuming any particular rate would overstate how quickly the target is reached — the error that matters here, since the consequence is being underfunded in an emergency. The field accepts a rate for anyone holding the fund somewhere that pays one. Source · You can change this input.

This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. Before you make a financial decision, consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not, and we cannot advise you.

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About this calculator

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Interest earned on the fund — nil. Zero is deliberate rather than a placeholder. An emergency fund's purpose is immediate availability, so it belongs in an at-call account whose return is small and variable, and assuming any particular rate would overstate how quickly the target is reached — the error that matters here, since the consequence is being underfunded in an emergency. The field accepts a rate for anyone holding the fund somewhere that pays one. Source · You can change this input.