# Case: Dana builds an emergency fund for summer and war > How to build an emergency fund on a seasonal income: a tutor separates a predictable summer dip from real emergencies, sizes both, places the money and plans how to fill it by June. - Course: [Personal Finance: Budget, Safety Cushion, Debt and Investing](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance.md) - Module: What if the income stops? - Lesson 8/32, ~31 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/cushion-plan-case ## Two different risks **Alex Tutor:** Today it's Dana's money: you're helping her build a cushion that fits her uneven year. **Dana:** Last summer ate my savings: June, July, August, each month a bit more. And then there is the war. If I have to leave Kyiv, or half my students stop, what then? **Alex Tutor:** Those are two different things. With a seasonal income, the summer comes every year, so it can be planned like a bill. Losing students in a war is an emergency: no date, no warning. **Sofia:** So two pots: a summer reserve and the cushion. **Alex Tutor:** Yes. If the summer is paid from the cushion, the cushion is empty every September, exactly when a real emergency could come. Let us size the summer first, from your own numbers. **Dataset (CSV):** [Dana's summer 2026, month by month](https://productovi.com/datasets/personal-finance/cushion-plan-case/dana-summer-2026.csv) Taxes: 6% of income (single tax and military levy) plus the 1,902.34 UAH social contribution. Flexible spending was cut to 3,000 a month. - `month`: Month - `income_uah`: Paid by Klasna, UAH - `taxes_uah`: Taxes for the month, UAH - `personal_essentials_uah`: Rent, food, utilities and other essentials, UAH - `flexible_uah`: Flexible spending, UAH - `balance_change_uah`: What the month added to or took from savings, UAH **Alex Tutor:** June: 23,000 − 3,282.34 − 21,200 − 3,000 = −4,482.34. Even after cutting flexible spending to 3,000, every summer month took money from savings. > **Exercise:** Use the summer table. How much did June, July and August 2026 **take from Dana's savings in total**? Round to kopiykas. ## How big are the two pots? **Dana:** So about 25,700 for the summer. And the cushion? **Alex Tutor:** Six months of essentials: one income, a FOP, a war. Your essentials with the social contribution are 23,102.34 a month, so 138,614.04. Both pots should be full by 1 June, before the next summer starts. **Sofia:** Why six months and not three? Klasna is still there. **Alex Tutor:** A move to another city can cost a month's rent as a deposit, and students don't follow you at once. Six months buys time to rebuild. It's a target, not a rule: Dana can choose four and say why. > **Exercise:** Dana wants both pots full by 1 June 2027: a summer reserve equal to last summer's 25,667.02 UAH and a cushion of **six months** of essentials (23,102.34 a month). What is the **total target**? Round to kopiykas. ## What she has and what is missing **Alex Tutor:** Today she can reach 53,400: the 31,000 savings account and the 500 dollars. The 40,000 deposit opens on 15 March, before June, so it counts for the June target. **Dana:** So by June I will have 93,400 without doing anything. And the 9,400 on my card? **Alex Tutor:** That's October's spending money, so it stays out. The gap is the full target minus 93,400, spread over eight months, October to May. **Sofia:** If her income repeats last year, October to May brings in 338,000. > **Exercise:** By June Dana will have 93,400 UAH available (savings 31,000 + dollars 22,400 + the deposit of 40,000 from 15 March). How much must she save **per month** from October to May (8 months) to reach 164,281.06? Round to kopiykas. ## How long will it take to build? **Dana:** 8,860 a month on average. In December I earned 33,000, and after taxes and my 25,200 of spending there is almost nothing left. **Alex Tutor:** Then stage it. Before the summer, the summer reserve and four months of essentials. The full six months by the end of 2027. A plan you keep beats a plan that breaks in December. **Sofia:** Four months is 92,409.36. Plus the summer, 118,076.38. Minus 93,400, only 24,676.38 is missing: about 3,085 a month. **Alex Tutor:** And Dana already has a rule for it: 10% of every payment. From October to May that is about 33,800 if the year repeats, more than enough. > **Exercise:** Put Dana's steps in a sensible order, from this week to next autumn. ## Where it lives, and a war shock **Dana:** And if something happens in January, halfway through? **Alex Tutor:** Then the cushion does its job, and the plan restarts from wherever it is. That is why it sits in two banks with instant access, with a week of cash and a dollar part for a move abroad. **Alex Tutor:** The summer reserve can sit apart, even in a deposit that ends in late May. Its date is known; the cushion's is not. **Sofia:** So the 10% rule fills the cushion first and the summer pot by June. > **Exercise:** Dana asks: "Why not keep one big pot and pay the summer from it, like last year?" Answer her in 2–3 sentences, using her numbers. ## Dana's plan **Dana:** Write it all down for me. Sizes, what I have, how I fill the gap, where the money sits and what I do if the worst happens. **Alex Tutor:** Numbers first, then the layout, then the rule. And because this touches banks and deposits: check the current terms and your own situation; this is education, not personal advice. **Sofia:** A small table and a few lines, like the fridge plan for Sam. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. Something Dana can read in a minute in July. > **Exercise:** Write Dana's cushion plan for the summer and for the war. > **Key ideas** > > - Separate a **predictable** dip from an **emergency**. Dana's summer 2026 took 25,667.02 UAH from savings; that is a planned summer reserve, not the cushion's job. > - Cushion: six months of essentials with the social contribution, 6 × 23,102.34 = 138,614.04. Both pots by 1 June: 164,281.06. > - Count only money she can reach when it is needed: 53,400 today, plus the 40,000 deposit from 15 March, 93,400 by June. The card's spending money doesn't count. > - The full gap, 70,881.06, is 8,860 a month or about 21% of October–May income: too tight in December. A staged plan (summer reserve plus four months by June, 24,676.38 to find) fits her 10% rule. > - The cushion lives in two banks with instant access, a week of cash and a dollar part; the summer reserve can sit in a deposit that ends in May. **Alex Tutor:** That closes the module: how big, where, how to fill it. Next module: what a debt really costs, starting with Sam's credit card. - Previous lesson: [Building it without pain: pay yourself first](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/pay-yourself-first.md) - Next lesson: [APR: the real annual cost of a loan](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/real-cost-of-a-loan.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.