How much to keep aside for the unexpected, and how long it takes to get there.
Emergency fund target
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Enter your pay or your essential costs to see the target.
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Nothing yet: copy, export or save a calculation to find it here.
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Enter your monthly take-home pay, or your essential costs one by one, and the number of months you want to cover. You get the size of your emergency fund, what is left to save and, if you say how much you can put aside each month, how many months it will take. Every step of the sum is shown.
Months of essential spending (rent or mortgage, council tax or rates and other bills, food, transport, insurance, debt repayments) give the least you would need to get by if your income stopped. Months of take-home pay give a larger cushion that also covers the costs you would rather not cut.
The calculator does not pick the number for you: choose how many months you would want to get through without your usual income. Think about how quickly you could earn again, whether someone else in the household has an income, and how regular your own income is.
Enter what you have already saved and what you can put aside each month. You see what is left to save, how many months your savings already cover and how long the rest will take, counting a part month as a full month. Amounts are rounded to the nearest penny. Copy the workings, export them as a CSV file or save them to Priostack.
Target = monthly amount × number of months.
Still to save = target − already saved.
Months already covered = already saved ÷ monthly amount, rounded down to a tenth.
Time = still to save ÷ monthly saving, rounded up to a whole month.
Interest is not counted.
Sam's essential costs are £850.00 rent, £220.00 council tax and bills, £300.00 food, £120.00 transport and £60.00 insurance: £1,550.00 a month. Six months of that is £1,550.00 × 6 = £9,300.00. Sam already has £2,000.00 saved, which covers 1.2 months, so £7,300.00 is left to save. Putting aside £300.00 a month, that takes £7,300.00 ÷ £300.00 = 24.33…, so 25 months (2 years and 1 month).
It is a personal choice. The quicker you could replace your income, for example with a secure job or a second earner in the household, the smaller the fund can be; irregular income, children or a single income point to more months. The presets run from 3 to 12 months, and 'Other number' takes anything from 1 to 60.
Essential spending gives the smallest fund that still pays the bills if your income stops. Take-home pay gives a bigger cushion that keeps your usual way of life going for a while. You can work out both: the calculator keeps what you typed when you switch.
Somewhere you can reach quickly without risking a loss, such as an easy-access savings account with a UK-authorised bank or building society. Since 1 December 2025 the FSCS protects up to £120,000 per person at each bank, building society or credit union; banks in one group that share a banking licence count as one.
Not always. The Personal Savings Allowance lets a basic rate taxpayer earn £1,000 of interest a year tax-free, a higher rate taxpayer £500 and an additional rate taxpayer nothing, and people with little other income may also get the starting rate for savings of up to £5,000. Interest in an ISA is not usually taxed.
No. Interest would shorten the time a little, but savings rates change, so the calculation leaves it out and errs on the long side.
Yes. The sums are the same everywhere in the UK, and FSCS deposit protection covers UK-authorised banks, building societies and credit unions wherever you live.
This calculator gives general information, not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice. The right amount depends on your circumstances: if you are unsure, talk to your bank or a regulated financial adviser.
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