Just one step away

Your horizon, your income, your debt position — they're all in the right place. The one thing holding you back from investing properly isn't your earnings. It's the cushion underneath them. You've told me your emergency buffer wouldn't last long if your income stopped. It's generally a good idea to build the buffer first, then invest. But you can start with small amounts to get you in the habit.

The last position you want to be in is finding yourself with no income and no emergency funds to cope with the bills. Building an emergency buffer is necessary for you and your family. However, as long as you're actively contributing meaningful amounts, there's nothing stopping you from putting small amounts into the markets. You'll become familiar with the process, and it will make it far easier when you're able to increase the amount you put in because you'll already be doing it.

The Long-Term Money Calculator works out the split. Decide how much of your monthly disposable income should go to building the buffer, and how much could start working for you in the market today — sized so that the buffer is still the priority, but it isn't the only thing happening.

The Parallel Projections Calculator

Enter your numbers, and the calculator works out two things:

• Time to target — tells you how long it will take to hit your target buffer amount.

• Your projected positions — how much you could have in your investment account over the same period

The split changes when you hit your emergency fund ‘target’. Those contributions then shift to your investment account. All the while you can see how both pots grow.

You'll also join the First Step Investor waitlist. The course is the natural next step once you've seen the split that works for your numbers — it's how you turn a monthly investing amount into a working Personal Investment Plan. Contributing Members get special pricing and first access at launch. If that's not for you no problem, you can always leave the waitlist while keeping the calculator.

Run the calculator and start building both your emergency and investment funds now.