Short answer
Keep three months of essential spending in an instant-access account if your income is steady, and closer to six if it is not, if you are self-employed, or if a household depends on one income. Pay off debt that costs more than a savings account earns before you invest.The emergency fund Germany
How big should an emergency fund be?
The order most money questions should be taken in: first a buffer, then the expensive debts, then investing.Essential spending, not income
Count what you cannot avoid each month: rent, energy, insurance, food, transport, loan instalments. That figure, not your salary, is what the buffer has to carry. A month of a 3,000 euro net income may be 2,100 euro of essentials.
How many months
As a guide: about three months for an employee with a steady job; four to six for a family on one income or with high fixed costs; six or more for the self-employed, whose income can stop without notice and who have no Arbeitslosengeld behind them. Planned costs – a car, a holiday – are a separate savings goal, not the emergency fund.
Where it belongs
In an account you can reach the same day and whose value does not move: a current-account buffer or a Tagesgeld account, covered by the statutory deposit protection of 100,000 euro per bank and person. Not in shares: the moment you need it is often the moment prices are down.
Debts before saving
Every euro that pays off a Dispo at 12 percent earns 12 percent, safely and after tax; a savings account earns a fraction of that. So once a small buffer exists, expensive debts come first: the Dispo, credit cards, consumer loans. A low-rate mortgage is different – there the comparison is with the long-run return.