The average American with an emergency fund has this balance. How does yours compare?

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You will often hear that it is important to have money in yours savings account for unexpected bills or to overcome a period of unemployment. Without emergency savings, you could otherwise end up with expensive ones credit card debt, and this is something that has the potential to mess with your finances for many years.

A recent NYC life survey found that among Americans who have an emergency fund, the median amount saved was $16,776.18. But is this how your emergency fund should be? Not necessarily.

Your emergency fund is all about you

Your emergency fund should be set up to get you through a personal crisis. As a general rule, it’s advisable to have enough money in emergency savings to cover a minimum of three months of essential living expenses. For added protection, you could aim for bills for six to 12 months. This is a good goal if you have a family full of dependents and you are the only one working and earning an income.

Now, the typical American with an emergency fund happens to have $16,776.18 saved up. But that doesn’t mean it’s the most appropriate amount to save.

Rather, what you need to do is take a look at your essential expenses and see how much they amount to on a monthly basis. These could include:

• Mutual or rent payment
• Car payments and transportation costs, such as gas, tolls and parking
• Food
• Utility
• Health care
• Essential technology services, such as an internet connection at home and a mobile phone
• Childcare

From there, you can see what your emergency fund needs are.

Let’s say you add up your essential bills and see that they come to $3,500 a month. A three-month emergency fund sets you at $10,500. So in that case, even if you’re not sitting on a savings balance of $16,776.18, you’re in pretty decent shape if you have $10,500 or more in the bank.

On the other hand, let’s say you total your monthly expenses and realize it’s costing you $6,000 a month to cover your essential bills. Perhaps you have an expensive mortgage and high child care costs that are driving up that number. In that case, an emergency fund of $16,776.18 doesn’t really cut it, even if it’s a lot of money to save.

Make sure you are covered

You never know when you might need access to cash in a pinch. Even if you don’t end up losing your job, you could run into problems with expensive home or car repairs that your regular paycheck can’t come close to covering. You may also, unfortunately, end up needing medical care that leaves you owing thousands of dollars to your various health care providers.

Having a fully loaded emergency fund is the best way to ensure you get the financial protection you need. But rather than fixating on what the typical American has set aside for emergency expenses, think about the amount of money You you need to make sure you don’t get into debt.

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