An emergency fund is a duration, not a dollar figure: what the balance buys is months of cover against the gap between essential spending and whatever income keeps arriving.
Months covered at the current net burn5.22
1.04Runway set against the search you expect
6 month
Months to reach targetRunway months
Net burn sets both sides at once: trimming essential spending lengthens the runway the savings already buy and lowers the dollar target needed to reach the same number of months.
Interactive artifact by Delineo