Emergency fund

How much to set aside for the month everything goes wrong, and how long it takes to get there at your current saving rate.

Essential monthly spending

Food, rent, power, medicine, instalments — only what cannot be skipped.

Months of spending to cover

Three to start; six with a stable job; six to twelve on a contract abroad or with a single income.

Already set aside

Only what you can reach at once — bank, wallet, cash.

You can add each month

Currency

More options

Your situation

Changes the guidance, not the arithmetic.

Emergency fund target

रू 1,80,000

6 months of essentials

Target रू 1,80,000 6 months of essential spending

Set aside so far रू 40,000 covers 1.3 months today

Still to save रू 1,40,000

Time to get there 18 months adding रू 8,000 a month

Set aside — रू 40,000 Still to save — रू 1,40,000

If everything stopped tomorrow, 6 months of essentials would cost रू 1,80,000. You have रू 40,000, which is 1.3 months.

Adding रू 8,000 a month closes the रू 1,40,000 gap in 18 months. The first month of cover matters most; the sixth is comfort.

Month	Balance	Months covered
1	48,000	1.6
2	56,000	1.9
3	64,000	2.1
4	72,000	2.4
5	80,000	2.7
6	88,000	2.9
7	96,000	3.2
8	1,04,000	3.5
9	1,12,000	3.7
10	1,20,000	4.0
11	1,28,000	4.3
12	1,36,000	4.5
13	1,44,000	4.8
14	1,52,000	5.1
15	1,60,000	5.3
16	1,68,000	5.6
17	1,76,000	5.9
18	1,80,000	6.0

What you can do next

Open a separate account for it — money that sits with the household money gets spent as household money.
Set the monthly addition to move the day income arrives, not at the end of the month.
When it is complete, stop adding and redirect that amount to debt or savings.

This answer assumes

Essential spending stays the same each month — it usually rises.
No return is modelled on the fund: its job is to be reachable, not to grow.
Each month's addition is made in full, before other spending.
The 6–12 month guidance for your situation is a common range, not a rule.

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A worked example

The form starts with these figures (in NPR) so you can see how it works before typing your own. They are made up — nobody's real numbers appear here.

Essential monthly spending रू 30,000

Months of spending to cover 6 months

Already set aside रू 40,000

You can add each month रू 8,000

Currency NPR — Nepalese Rupee

Your situation Contract work abroad

Questions people ask

How many months should I cover?

Three is a start. Six is the common answer for a stable job. On a contract abroad, or as the only earner, six to twelve — because losing the job can also mean a flight home and months without pay.

What counts as essential?

What you could not stop paying for a month: food, rent, power, medicine, loan instalments, school fees. Not phone upgrades, not eating out.

Should I invest the fund so it grows?

No. Its whole job is to be reachable on the day you need it. A fund that is invested is a fund that may be down 20% on that exact day.

I already have debt — fund or debt first?

One month of cover first, then the expensive debt, then the rest of the fund. Without one month, the next emergency becomes more debt.

Do you keep what I type here?

No. The figures are used to work out the answer and are not stored, and never appear in the page address.

These are estimates. The figures depend entirely on the numbers you enter and on assumptions that are listed on every result. They are not financial advice, and a bank, employer or authority may use different rules. Check anything important with them before you decide.

We do not keep your figures. Salary, debt and savings you type here are used to work out the answer and are not stored, and never appear in the page address. The only thing remembered is your country and language choice (a small cookie), so the currency can be suggested next time — never a figure you typed. Anonymous counters record that a calculation happened, not what it was.