During the pandemic, I took almost a year off from work of any sort. I had eliminated all of the expenses I had that I wasn't deriving real value from, and estimated how much I'd need to have in the bank to afford the time of no income. Then I saved up that amount.
At the end, I'd overestimated by about 4x and learned a great lesson about how much money I actually need to live in the manner that I prefer.
I did my estimations by reviewing my bank statements for the prior year. I was afraid of missing things, so wanted some actual historical data. Then I added an extra safety margin. I didn't want to have to break into my real savings!
If I had spent a few months really tracking my spending at a granular level, I think my estimate would have been much closer to correct.
During the pandemic, I took almost a year off from work of any sort. I had eliminated all of the expenses I had that I wasn't deriving real value from, and estimated how much I'd need to have in the bank to afford the time of no income. Then I saved up that amount.
At the end, I'd overestimated by about 4x and learned a great lesson about how much money I actually need to live in the manner that I prefer.