Money With Saprina is for high-achieving women who make good money but still feel like they should be further ahead.
I’m Saprina Allen, a financial coach, and every week we have honest conversations about what it actually takes to pay off debt, build wealth, and create a financial life that feels like yours. We talk cash flow, spending, debt, investing, financial systems, and the emotional side of money that most personal finance advice skips right over.
Because making more money doesn’t automatically make you better at managing it. And being good with money isn’t about restriction, perfection, or never buying the latte. It’s about knowing what you want your money to do, building systems you can trust, and making intentional decisions that support both the life you want now and the future you’re building.
No shame. No financial perfection. Just practical strategies, real conversations, and a better way to make your money work for you.
Most people will tell you three to six months. I'm going to give you the real answer — because the right number is different for everyone, and getting it wrong is too expensive a mistake.
In this episode, we're breaking down everything you need to know about your emergency fund. What it actually is, how much you should have based on YOUR situation, and exactly where it should be sitting right now.
I'm also sharing how my emergency fund carried me when I was laid off from my corporate job. No spiral. No panic. Just security I had built on purpose.
We cover:
— Why the standard "three to six months" advice isn't enough for most people — How your industry, job stability, and dependents affect your target number — Why you should NEVER invest your emergency fund — The one place I always recommend keeping it (and why a little friction is actually a good thing) — When it makes sense to keep more than six months and what to do with the extra
Your emergency fund is not just a savings goal. It is the thing that protects the life you are working so hard to build.
This episode will help you figure out exactly what that number looks like for you.
Connect with Saprina: Instagram: @ItsSaprina Website: SaprinaDanise.com
Ready to work together? Book a coaching consultation at calendly.com/hermoneyaudit/coaching-session
If you’re making good money but still feel like your finances don’t match the life you’re trying to build, apply for 1:1 coaching with me.
for women who are done being quiet about their money. I'm your host and money coach, Sabrina. And today we are talking about your emergency fund, how much you should have in it based on your financial situation and where you should keep it. But first, let's talk
about what is your emergency fund. Your emergency fund is a fund you put together in cash to protect yourself against life. If your car breaks down, you have the money to take care of it stress-free. If your house has an issue, you have the money to fix it without worrying. When I was laid off for my corporate job, my emergency fund carried me financially until my business started making money. And it is still supplementing my income as I get my business up off the ground. Your emergency fund is there to protect you against life, and it is a very powerful tool on your road to financial peace. There is power in having money there. It reduces stress, it reduces anxiety, and it protects the life that you are working so hard to build. It really is important that you have your emergency fund in place. Now, a lot of personal finance folks will tell you that you need to have
three to five months of expenses set aside. But I use a little bit more of a detailed, nuance approach. With my one-on-one clients, the emergency fund is the first thing that we get straight. The size of your emergency fund is really going to depend on your financial situation, where you are in life, and who is depending on your income. It's also going to depend on the type of job that you work, the industry that you work in, and the work itself. If you are in an industry where you know that you can get a new job fairly quickly, it's not going to take you long to replace your income. Maybe you're a healthcare worker or you work in tech sales or you work in engineering, you have a very high demand job. You can get away with maybe having a little bit of a smaller emergency fun. Versus in my previous career, I worked in recruiting. Recruiting is an incredibly volatile industry. When the market is good, things are good. We're hot. But when it's not, we are typically the first ones to get laid off. And so I knew that finding a new role would take me time. And I knew that their likelihood that I would get impacted by a layoff was higher than the average person. So I wanted to have a really robust emergency fund. I'd say I almost never recommend a three-month emergency fund, especially in this economy. It's just too risky. Cash is security. I like to approach six months at a minimum and maybe even closer to a year. Now, when you have your emergency fund, where do you put it? You want to put it in a high yield savings. That is always what I recommend. Some place that's going to give you a little bit of interest, I'd say three, four, five percent, but you do not ever want to invest your emergency fund. The reason for this is if there is a recession, if the market declines, if there is an economic downturn, your emergency fund gets cut in half. Now your six month of living expenses becomes three. You'll want to keep it somewhere safe, secure, where you're not at the whim of the market. Now, if you are someone who keeps more than six months in your emergency fund, maybe you keep nine months or 12 months, then you could get away with investing a portion of it. So you could put maybe six months on your high yield savings and the other six months in something like a CD ladder. But for the most part, your emergency fund should be kept in cash, easily accessible, but not too accessible. So I recommend keeping it at another bank, not at your primary bank, somewhere where there's a little bit of friction to accessing it, but not too much friction that you couldn't get to it in a true emergency. Now let's talk about how much you should be keeping in that emergency fund. If you are single with no dependence, we're talking it's just you, you could get away with a smaller emergency fund, maybe three months. Now, my caveat to this is if you have family in the area that you could fall back on, then you can get away with that three-month emergency fund. But even then, I'd still recommend going on the higher end aiming for six months. I think most people underestimate just how long it's going to take them to find a new job. Finding a new job in this market in 2026 is a heck of a lot harder than it used to be. And three months will go by very, very quickly. Number two, if you are a single income family, now this is a dangerous place to be in because you are relying on one singular income to support your family. And if that income gets cut and you have no emergency fund, then you are in a whole heap of trouble. So I recommend that you keep a minimum of six months, but you really want to be aiming towards nine to 12 months. There are more people depending on your income. You need to have a bigger buffer. The third scenario is a dual income family. As a dual income family, you can get away with having a bit of a smaller emergency fund. Why? Because you have two incomes coming into the house. If one person loses their income, then you still have the other one to fall back on. So you only would need to make up for the one income. So in this dual income family situation, you can get away with having a bit of a smaller emergency fund. I really approach the emergency fund as a layoff protection where your checking account buffer comes in for your smaller everyday expenses. That emergency fund is really there to protect against income loss. Now, if you are self-employed, this is where things get a little bit tricky and you need a longer runway. When you are self-employed, your income is rarely the same from month to month. So having a longer runway of emergency fund is necessary. I recommend 12 to 18 months. Bottom line if you've got kids or dependents, you need to have a minimum of six months. Okay, I hope that was helpful. I'll see you on the next episode.
