How Many Months of Emergency Savings

Singapore's Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board suggests building up an emergency fund of at least 3 to 6 months of expenses to tide through any unexpected events.

But in the current world of job insecurity and rising cost of living, should we be saving more if we have the means to?

On 19 March 2025, our Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released the Re-entry into Employment statistics, reflecting a somewhat gloomier outlook for retrenched residents to secure a new job within 6 months:

• The annual rate for the past 10 years (2014 to 2023) has always maintained above 60% (averaging around 65.8%), but it dipped to a worrying 58.4% in 2024.

• To put it simply, if there are 1,000 Singapore citizens and permanent residents who were retrenched last year, only 584 managed to find work within 6 months...

... but how many are underemployed in contrast to their professional experience and skillset? (I wasn't able to successfully retrieve MOM's Underemployment 2024 stats.)

In October 2024, The Straits Times published an article about platform workers, in which Elijah Lee from Phillip Securities recommended setting aside 12 to 18 months of expenses for emergency cash. Perhaps this makes more sense than the general rule of thumb of 3 to 6 months.