Entry № 14 · logged Oct 2, 2026Free, no sign-upEmergency Fund · Savings
How much emergency fund? One multiplication, four posted targets.
Every guide answers this question with a range and a shrug. The ledger answers it with your number: one month of must-pay bills, times three, six, nine, and twelve. Type your real essentials into the slip and the four targets post instantly — then check which one your income pattern actually calls for.
The national conversation anchors on six months: Bankrate's 2026 report found 63% of Americans say they would need at least that much to feel comfortable.
The reserve ledger, Form EF-14. Left column: what one month of staying alive actually costs. Right column: what you have and what you add. The slip posts your 3, 6, 9, and 12-month targets and stamps how many months you can cover today.
Targets are your essential expenses multiplied by months — nothing fancier. The road-to-target lines assume the deposit lands monthly and the yield compounds monthly. When a target date says "not on this deposit," the deposit is $0 or the yield alone cannot close the gap.
Around this tool
From the ledger
How the ledger sizes a reserve
The formula fits on one line: essential monthly expenses × months of cover. The fights are all in the two inputs. Essentials means the bills that continue while income stops — housing, utilities, groceries, transport, insurance, minimum debt payments — and excludes the spending that pauses on its own, like dining out and subscriptions. Months of cover is a judgment about how long income could be gone: three if two stable paychecks back the house, six for a single income or kids, nine to twelve when the income itself is variable.
What the formula refuses to do is size the fund off your salary. A household earning $6,000 a month and spending $3,200 of it on must-pays needs a $19,200 six-month fund. A household earning the same and spending $4,800 needs $28,800. Same paycheck, $9,600 apart — which is why paycheck-based rules mislead in both directions, flattering lean households into over-saving cash and stretched households into under-saving it.
Start where you are. If the six-month number feels abstract, fund one month first — on the prefilled slip that is $3,200 — then three. The slip stamps your current cover in months so each milestone is visible as you cross it: EXPOSED under one month, THIN to three, COVERED to six, FORTIFIED past it.
Disclaimer: arithmetic, not financial advice. The 3-to-6-month frame is the standard rule of thumb; your circumstances set your number.
Filed answers
Questions from the reserve desk
Is 3 months enough, or do I need 6?
Three months is a floor for a dual-income household with stable jobs and no dependents — two paychecks rarely stop the same month. Six is the standard for a single income, kids, or a house payment that dominates the budget. The prefilled ledger shows the practical difference: $9,600 versus $19,200, funded in 17 versus 39 months at $400 a month. Pick the target your income pattern can defend, then fund it in stages.
Should I count my full spending or just essentials?
Just essentials. In a month with no income, the discretionary spending stops by itself — nobody keeps the streaming bundle and skips the mortgage. Counting full spending inflates the target and makes it feel unreachable, which is how emergency funds die as good intentions. Count what must be paid for the household to function.
Is this financial advice?
No — it is arithmetic on numbers you type. It does not know your job security, your health, or your debts.
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