Emergency fund calculator for OFWs

An emergency fund is cash you can reach in a few days if your pay stops or a big bill lands. Fill in the boxes above and the receipt shows your target, how much is still to save, and how many months that takes. Every amount is in pesos.

Questions to help you pick your months

There is no official number of months. These questions help you choose a number that fits your contract and your family. They change how many months you pick. They never change the formula.

• Is a new contract lined up for when this one ends? If not, count the months it usually takes you to find the next one, and add them.
• Would the family at home still need your remittance if you were sent home early? If yes, keep “money you send home” in the boxes. If someone else at home could cover it for a while, you can lower it.
• Does your employer pay for your flight home? If not, add the fare to “one-off costs”.
• Who pays for medical care where you work? If you could face a bill your employer’s cover does not pay, pick more months or add the amount to one-off costs.
• Do you have debts with fixed monthly payments? Add those payments to your monthly costs, since they keep coming when your pay stops.

How it is worked out

The calculator follows four lines:

1. Each month you would need = monthly costs abroad + money sent home
2. Emergency fund target = each month you would need x months to cover + one-off costs
3. Still to save = target minus what you have already set aside (never below zero)
4. Months to fill it = still to save divided by what you can put in each month, rounded up to a whole month

If you leave the monthly amount empty, or put zero, the receipt shows the target and the gap only. If what you have set aside is already at or above the target, it says the fund already covers it.

If you enter the months left on your contract, the receipt also says whether the fund would be full before the contract ends.

Assumptions

• No interest is added to what you set aside. Any interest you do earn is a small bonus.
• Costs are today’s costs. Prices rise over time, so check your figures again each year or at each new contract.
• Every amount is in pesos. If you are paid in dirhams, riyals or another currency, convert first at the rate you actually get when you send money home.

If you are sent home early

Some government help exists for OFWs who lose their job abroad. It takes time to claim and does not replace an emergency fund, but it is worth knowing:

• SSS unemployment benefit: SSS members who are involuntarily separated from work, OFWs included, may claim a cash benefit if they meet SSS’s conditions, such as being no older than 60 and having at least 36 monthly contributions (RA 11199 Sec. 14-B). See our guide to the SSS unemployment benefit and the SSS unemployment benefit page.
• OWWA help if you are repatriated or displaced: OWWA’s “Balik Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay” is a livelihood cash grant for members who come home repatriated, displaced or in distress, and you need proof of displacement, such as a termination letter. It pays PHP 20,000 to active members, PHP 10,000 to inactive members with more than one contribution and PHP 5,000 to those with one, with entrepreneurship training (OWWA Citizen’s Charter 2026). See our guide to OWWA reintegration.
• MySSS Pension Booster (voluntary): if you save in it, SSS’s primer says money can be withdrawn in the first year only for hardship, and it names OFW repatriation as one of those cases.

Where people keep an emergency fund

The point of an emergency fund is that you can reach it quickly, without a penalty and without waiting for a market to recover. That usually rules out money locked in for a fixed term or put into something whose value goes up and down. Think about who needs to reach it: an account the family at home can draw on, one where you work, or some in each.

If you keep it in a Philippine bank, check that the bank is a member of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), which insures deposits up to PHP 1,000,000 per depositor, per bank, since 15 March 2025. Our guide to high-interest savings accounts explains what to compare. We do not name or rank banks.

Worked example

This example uses invented round numbers. It is not a real OFW’s case.

Ana works in Dubai. She spends about PHP 25,000 a month there and sends PHP 20,000 home. She picks 6 months because her contract renewal is not certain. Her employer would not pay her flight home, so she adds PHP 30,000. She has PHP 60,000 set aside and can put in PHP 12,000 a month. Her contract has 18 months left.

Monthly costs abroad

PHP 25,000.00

Plus money sent home

PHP 20,000.00

Each month she would need

PHP 45,000.00

Times 6 months

PHP 270,000.00

Plus one-off costs (flight)

PHP 30,000.00

Emergency fund target

PHP 300,000.00

Minus what she has set aside

-PHP 60,000.00

Still to save

PHP 240,000.00

Months to fill it at PHP 12,000

20

At PHP 12,000 a month the fund takes 20 months, which is longer than the 18 months left on her contract. Putting in PHP 13,500 a month would fill it in 18 months (240,000 / 13,500 is 17.8, rounded up to 18).

Related guides and sources

• Planning your retirement in the Philippines as an OFW, the retirement hub
• All our calculators