Emergency fund calculator
How much to keep aside for a job loss, an illness or a big repair, and how long it takes to get there. With ₹40,000 of essential spending a month, six months of cover is ₹2,40,000.
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Your figures
Rent, groceries, bills, EMIs, insurance premiums, school fees: what you can’t skip.
Results
Your emergency fund
₹2,40,000
about ₹2.4 lakh
- Still to save
- ₹1,90,000
- Time to get there
- 1 year 7 months
- Covered now
- 21% (1.3 months)
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Where you are
- Saved₹50,00020.8%
- Still to save₹1,90,00079.2%
How this is calculated
Emergency fund = essential spending a month × months of cover
Months to get there = (emergency fund − what you've saved) ÷ what you save each month, rounded up.
- Essential spending is what you’d still have to pay with no income: rent, groceries, bills, EMIs, insurance premiums, school fees. Leave out what you could stop, like eating out and trips.
- How many months: six is a common starting point. Choose more if your income is irregular, you’re the only earner, or you’d take long to find work. Three may do with two steady incomes.
- The money should be easy to reach and safe: a savings account, a sweep-in FD or a liquid fund, not shares.
Questions
Should EMIs count in my emergency fund?
Yes. If you lost your income, your EMIs would still be due, and missing them is costly. Count every EMI you pay as essential spending.
Does health insurance replace an emergency fund?
No, they work together. Insurance covers large hospital bills; the emergency fund covers the rest of life while you recover, and costs insurance doesn’t pay.
Where should I keep it?
Somewhere you can reach within a day or two, without the value falling: a savings account, an FD you can break, or a liquid fund. Keep it apart from your spending account, so it isn’t spent by accident.
Save for it with a goal in Quilleaf
Quilleaf is a free app for Android that keeps your money ledger on your phone, with no sign-up. Give a goal a target and a date, link the accounts and investments you save in, and see the amount a month that finishes it on time.
- Emergency fund suggests six months of your usual spending.
- A notification when a goal is 25, 50, 75 and 100% saved.
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These figures are estimates to help you plan, not financial advice. Banks, lenders and fund houses round and time things their own way, and rates change: check with them before you decide.