Evaluate what you have
Before we can figure out how much you still need to put away in your emergency savings fund, lets add up what you've already got and then make sure it's saved in the right place.
Overview
Any money you have stashed away that is easy to access in an emergency can be counted toward your emergency savings. But it's difficult to keep track of things if your savings accounts are also your day-to-day banking accounts.
The optimal way to save your emergency fund is in interest bearing accounts that deliver a return but it's also important that there is no risk of losing money and the account must allow immediate access when you need it.
If you have saved up more than 3 months of expenses then you might not need all of the money to be instantly accessible. In that case you put some of it in an account with a fixed deposit term as these will deliver better returns.
Your emergency savings fund should not include funds you are specifically saving for spending goals such as a deposit on a house, buying a car or paying for a holiday.
Setting up your account on Fynbos
When you configure your emergency savings on Fynbos for the first time we will create a default account that represents your emergency savings.
You can specify the amount that you currently have saved and which account you have the funds saved in.
In future we will support tracking multiple accounts and also the ability to connect Fynbos with your account so we can monitor the balance and any contributions to help you optimise your emergency savings fund.