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Emergency Fund Calculator

The first thing you should build before any long-term investment. 6–12 months of essentials, held in liquid instruments.

Inputs
₹60,000

What you'd spend in bare-minimum months

6 is standard; 12 if income is variable / single earner

₹2.00 L

FD, liquid MF, savings — money you can access in 24-48 hours

Target emergency fund (6 months)
₹3.60 L
Currently covered: 3.3 months
Target₹3.60 L
Current liquid₹2.00 L
Shortfall₹1.60 L
Where to keep it: Split between a high-yield savings account (2–3 months instant access) and a liquid mutual fund (rest, ~6–7%, 1-day redemption). Do NOT keep this money in equity SIPs — it must be there when you need it most (job loss, medical emergency).
Partner · Savings

Park this fund somewhere it still earns while staying liquid.

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Want the full picture?

The main NetCorpus India planner rolls this into a 50-year retirement plan alongside your loans, EPF, taxes, trips, and life goals.

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Simple estimate for emergency fund. Rates & taxes will vary — verify before acting.

A quick sizing calculator for how much you should keep in liquid, easily-accessible savings before investing anything else — based on your actual monthly expenses, not an arbitrary round number.

How it's calculated

Target fund = monthly expenses × number of months of buffer you want, minus whatever you've already set aside. The standard guidance is 6 months of expenses for a salaried professional with reasonably stable income; single-income households, freelancers, or anyone in a volatile industry are often better served by 9–12 months.

Worked example

At ₹60,000/month expenses with a 6-month target and ₹2L already saved, you need roughly ₹1.6L more to hit the full buffer — a concrete, checkable number instead of a vague 'save more' intention.

Frequently asked
Where should the emergency fund actually sit?

Somewhere genuinely liquid and low-risk — a savings account, a liquid mutual fund, or a sweep-in FD. The whole point is being able to access it within a day or two without penalty or market-timing risk, which rules out equity, long-tenure FDs, and anything with a lock-in.

Should I build the emergency fund before starting SIPs?

Generally yes, or at least in parallel — an underfunded emergency reserve often forces people to break a long-term investment or take on high-interest debt when something unexpected happens, which usually costs more than the SIP gains would have been worth.

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