Emergency fund sizing

Three to six for a stable income, more for irregular work, and the number that matters is expenses rather than income. The common mistake is sizing it against salary, which inflates the target and delays the point where you stop worrying.

At ten times the size the bottleneck moves from the operation itself to what it competes with: memory, locks and the people who have to run it. The approach stays, the batching gets smaller and the schedule matters more.