Everyday Money Habits · Worksheet

Your emergency fund, in three stages.

The emergency fund is a fire extinguisher, not a stock holding — it exists to be there, not to grow. "Three to six months of expenses" sounds impossible from zero, so this sheet breaks it into three stages you can actually reach, starting with one you can fill in twenty weeks.

Beginner
First job

Name

Date

Audience: For anyone building their safety net
Time: About 20 minutes
Materials: Last month's bills or your banking app · a pen

Objective

Tally your essential monthly expenses, set the three staged targets, and name the first automated deposit.

Use this when

You want a safety net but "three to six months of expenses" feels impossibly far away from zero.

1 · What one month really costs

Essentials only — the survival number, not your full lifestyle. If you could skip it in a bad month (streaming, eating out, hobbies), leave it out.

Housingrent or mortgage — what you must pay every month

Foodgroceries — the survival version, not restaurants

Utilitiespower, water, phone, internet

Insurancehealth, car, renters — the payments that keep your coverage active

Transportationgas, transit pass, the car payment if you have one

Minimum debt paymentsminimums only — payoff plans live on another sheet

Essentials total — one monthadd the rows above; every stage below is built from this

2 · Your three stages

Nobody saves "three to six months" in one push. Shade the meter as you go — the first section is small on purpose. The first two stages carry most of the protection.

The printed dollars are one example household, at about $4,000 a month of essentials. Your sections use your own targets below — pencil in your stage lines, then shade what you’ve saved.

Stage 0 — your biggest deductiblewhat insurance makes you pay first, from your policy or app — usually $1,000–$2,500. The only stage that runs alongside paying off high-interest debt

Stage 1 — one month of essentialsyour total from box 1; where most short-term shocks stop hurting

Stage 2 — three to six monthsessentials × 3 (stable dual income) up to × 6 (variable income, sole earner)

3 · Where it lives — boring, immediate, separate

BoringHigh-yield savings at an online bank, typically paying around 3–5%. FDIC-insured, no market risk — a brokerage fund can be down 30% the same week you need it.

ImmediateReachable in a day or two. The short transfer delay is the only withdrawal cooling-off you need.

SeparateIts own clearly-labeled account — different app, different login. Not a bucket inside checking, not the vacation fund, and not the Roth IRA or a credit-card limit either: those two fail at the exact moment they’re supposed to work.

The account I’ll usename the bank and label the account "emergency fund"

4 · Before you spend it — the three tests

When the moment comes, an expense earns this money only if all three boxes check. Two out of three means it was predictable — that’s a sinking fund, not an emergency.

Unexpected — you couldn’t reasonably have planned for it

Necessary — skipping it costs income, housing, or health

Urgent — it can’t wait for next month’s paycheck

If you can see it coming six months out, it’s a sinking fund — a separate savings bucket you fill monthly for predictable expenses like tires or Christmas.

5 · The first deposit

Targets are useful; deposits are real. One automated transfer, the day after payday —$100 a week fills Stage 0 in twenty weeks; $50 a week takes forty. Doing it every week matters more than the amount.

I’ll move this much, automaticallyan amount that survives a normal month

Everyweek or payday — the day after money lands

Set up on this datethe hard part is the first five minutes

6 · Reflection

The number in box 1 that surprised you, and why:

At your weekly amount, the date Stage 0 will be full (your Stage 0 target ÷ your weekly amount = weeks; count forward on a calendar):

Based on the Three months in a coffee can lesson.