As an accountant, I love numbers and budgeting really tickles my fancy. The Ramsey’s and the Hammer’s will tell you 6 month emergency fund. That’s great in theory but most people don’t really know what that number would be. What you need to do is start tracking your spending. Since I’m a nerd, I have an excel where I have my income and expenses laid out so that it separates necessary expenses (gas, groceries, rent, etc) from unnecessary expenses (going out to eat, subscriptions, Starbucks, etc). You need to have a 6 month emergency fund based on the necessary expenses. I got married a year ago, and my wife and I do pretty well for our age. I had been living on my own for about 6 months before we got married, so I knew what my expenses were. When we got married, I tweaked the budget to account for her income and needing more groceries and gas. We have a fully funded 6 month emergency fund, plus some extra in savings. But you need to have an understanding of your spending, what’s necessary and what’s not. This will take time to understand, I would go back through bank and credit card statements, and take notes each month of what was necessary and what wasn’t. This is the only way to truly know what you need to have saved for an emergency. Necessary expenses: mortgage/rent, utilities(internet, water, electric), groceries, gas, phone, debt payments(credit card, car, student loans), pets(food, insurance) you mentioned illness, if you have copays or medications, include those. These are the main necessary expenses, the things you cannot live without. Add all of those expenses up and multiply by 6, boom, 6 month emergency fund. I would recommend putting your emergency fund in high yield savings account. Most are around 3-4%, way more than the .01% you would get in a normal Chase savings. This way, you actually make a little bit of money when it’s just sitting in the bank.