Simple, Honest Financial Advice
Due to the interest I have received from my recent post describing a formula to calculate how much you need in your emergency fund, I have created an Excel spreadsheet that can run the formula for you.
Download the free spreadsheet in Excel format here
You can also use the calculator on Google Spreadsheets.
David Weliver founded MoneyUnder30.com at the age of 25 as he struggled to conquer post-college debt on entry level paychecks. Today, he balances blogging here to help young professionals jump start their financial lives with employment in the software industry and a new family. You can follow David on Twitter @MoneyUnder30.
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I'm David Weliver. At 26, I had NO savings and NO financial plan. I was maxed out, stressed out, and fed up. Then, I changed. I repaid $80k of debt, tripled my income, and bought a home. I'll show you how to get similar results.
Your calculator is an interesting tool, but fails to reflect the dual income world we live in today. If both my wife and I can easily accommodate our lifestyle on our individual incomes, the amount I need to have saved for an emergency is much less than as the head of household. furthermore, I _really_ like your income volatility indicator, but we’ve diversified our industries so there is no statistical correlation (psychology and aerospace – you do the math) to increase our emergency fund. I’m not sure people are getting the full story, and they’re likely to think they’re safer than they really are (like I do!).
Thanks for the information,
Regards
Peter