This depends on what type of emergency fund you are talking about.
For a traditional savings account, the first goal is to have two paychecks saved after all bills and expenses are taken care of. You then move onto 3 months of wages. And, you hit the gold star level by saving 6 months worth of savings. Just to let you know, the average American makes $35,977 (as of 2019), so saving around $17,500 is the gold mark.
For other emergency funds, the values are everywhere.
When you look at a home repair emergency fund, the recommendation is 1% of a home’s value. So, if you own a home in Lawrence County, your home value, on average, might be around $60,000. For this emergency fund, you would want to have about $6000 available.
If you are talking about a car repair emergency fund, the numbers are a bit different than a home repair. For a low-end goal, start with $500 to $600. However, know that larger items like a new engine or a new transmission can be significantly higher ($4000 – $7500, or more). We recommend $1500 to be safe.
Now, one thing we should mention is that over 60% of Americans will not be able to recover from a large event because of a lack of necessary emergency savings. In fact, if you would like to be in the top 25% of savers across the US, you just need to have $500 in each emergency fund and a savings account.