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Put in what you have saved and what comes in and goes out each month. See how long it lasts, then try a new job, a move, a baby or a big expense and watch the answer move.
Your savings
What you could draw on
A typical month
Pay in, spending out. Rent and bills count as spending.
What if… (optional)
Switch any of these on and watch the answer move.
A new job, or a change in pay
A move
A child or dependant
A one-off expense (a car, a wedding)
Your savings runway
You are spending about $450 more than you earn each month.
We'll email you the month-by-month table. One click turns it into a free Cashowa account, with your figures already in it.
What this can't see
This assumes one typical month. Your real statements show what you actually spend, where it is drifting, and how a change would land on your own numbers, and the forecast in Cashowa reads them for you.
Cashowa reads your statements and does it for youFree, Starter and Pro
This page assumes one typical month. Starter forecasts from your actual statements and lets you test a new job, a move or a baby against what you really spend. Here is everything in each plan.
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Your runway is your savings divided by how much they fall each month. Take-home pay minus spending gives the monthly change; if it is negative, that is the drain.
With $18,000 saved, $4,200 coming in and $4,650 going out, you lose $450 a month, so $18,000 ÷ $450 = 40 months, about three years and four months. Those are the figures the calculator opens with.
Each what-if is a plain adjustment on top of your typical month, starting in the month you choose. Move somewhere $300 a month dearer from month three and the loss becomes $750. Months one and two cost $450 each, leaving $17,100, which lasts another 22.8 months at $750. That is 24.8 in all, about two years and one month, and the faint line on the chart shows where you would have been without the move.
Most people can say what they earn and spend in a normal month; few can recite the last three. So the calculator carries one typical month forward and does not invent a trend. Your real statements show something it cannot: where spending is drifting, and what a month actually looks like once the annual bills and the surprises are in it.
Three to six months of essential spending is the usual target, and the “if your income stopped today” figure shows where you stand against it. It is a rule of thumb rather than a law. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guide to building an emergency fund gives no fixed number. It suggests looking at the unexpected costs you have faced before and setting a goal from there, and it says to start small if money is tight.
Essential spending, not total spending, is the right base: rent or mortgage, utilities, food, insurance and minimum debt payments. The calculator uses what you enter, so if you want the stricter test, put only essentials in the spending box.
Both are left out. Interest lengthens the runway slightly and inflation shortens it; over a few years they largely offset each other.
A car repair, a dental bill, an annual insurance premium. These are real and they are not in a typical month, which is why the one-off expense what-if exists.
Count only what you would actually draw on. Retirement accounts and anything locked in for a fixed term can carry penalties or taxes that this sum does not model.
Upload a bank or card statement and Cashowa shows your real spending, builds the forecast from it, and keeps it current. Tracking is free.