---
title: "Emergency Fund Calculator"
description: "Calculate your ideal safety cushion: monthly expenses × buffer months. With savings timeline and parking-vehicle guidance."
canonical: "https://investboard.de/en/rechner/notgroschen"
language: "en"
modified: "2026-07-09"
author: "Investboard"
---

# Emergency Fund Calculator

How much financial cushion do you need?

## How large should your emergency fund be?

A widespread rule of thumb from consumer guidance is **three to six months of net expenses**. What counts is what you actually spend, not what you earn. If you spend EUR 2,200 a month, your buffer target sits somewhere around EUR 6,600 to EUR 13,200.

Where you land in that range depends on your situation:

| Situation | Orientation | Reason |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Secure dual earners | closer to 3 months | Two incomes cushion an outage on either side |
| Employed, sole earner | towards 6 months | One outage hits the whole household |
| Self-employed | closer to 6 months | Fluctuating income, longer transitions |

## Where the emergency fund should live

An emergency fund has to satisfy two conditions: **available at any time** and **stable in value**. Both point to a call-money account (Tagesgeld). The money is accessible daily, the nominal amount does not fluctuate, and in an emergency it is at hand without a sell decision.

The portfolio is the wrong place for it: whoever has to sell in an emergency may be selling in the middle of a drawdown, turning a liquidity problem into a realised loss.

Balances at banks in Germany and the EU are protected by the statutory deposit guarantee up to EUR 100,000 per bank and customer.

## How the calculator works

### Emergency-fund target

```text
Target = monthly net expenses × buffer months (3, 6, 9 or 12)
```

For the savings timeline, the calculator compounds your existing cushion month by month and adds your savings rate until the target is reached. The interest applied per parking option is an illustrative model assumption (call money 2.5%, money-market ETF 3.2%, fixed-term ladder 3.5% per year), not a live market rate; actual rates follow the market environment.

Promotional call-money rates are often time-limited. For an emergency fund the rate is secondary anyway: availability and stability matter more than the last decimal of yield.

## Buffer first, portfolio second

The emergency fund is not an investment; it is the precondition for one. Build the buffer first and you can invest afterwards without having to sell units over the first car repair or utilities back-payment. That order protects the long-term strategy from short-term pressure.