Shoralis How to build an emergency fund: test the 3-6 month rule in a simulation
How big should an emergency fund be?
The classic rule is 3-6 months of essential expenses — but it is a range, and your spot in it varies. A single-income household, freelancer or commission earner is better off targeting 9-12 months.
The base is "essential" spending: rent, utilities, food, insurance, installments. Entertainment and optional items are excluded; multiply your monthly essentials by the number of months to get your target.
Where should it live?
An emergency fund has three requirements: instantly reachable, principal never lost, at least partly tracking inflation. A checking account is reachable but melts; short-term deposits or money-market funds strike the balance.
It never lives in volatile assets like stocks: when the crisis comes you would be selling at exactly the moment you must not sell. The fund's job is not returns — it is sleep quality.
How do you build it?
Set an automatic transfer for payday — discipline is delegated to the system, not to willpower. Even 5% of income is enough to start; route part of any bonus or irregular income straight to the fund.
Split the goal: first one month of expenses, then three, then six. Visible intermediate targets keep motivation alive.
Test it in a simulation
In Shoralis you can build a job-loss scenario yourself: open a branch, zero out income from a chosen month, and hold an asset equal to your fund. See on the line how many months it lasts.
Repeat the test in the pessimistic scenario: if unemployment stretches, in which month does the fund run out? That number is your personal answer to "am I safe enough?"
Test this decision in the simulator
Run two lives side by side: with and without the decision. See the net-wealth gap in a projection of up to 30 years.
Open the simulator