Bad things happen. These bad things are a matter of “when,” not “if.” If you own a car, it will need repairs. If you have a pet, it will get sick. If you have a corporeal form, you will need to take it to a doctor’s office or urgent care at some point.

Start small. If you get $400 together, you’re already ahead of one-third of Americans. Make that your first goal, and then work up to an amount that would cover a big unexpected expense, like a car repair or a last-minute plane ticket. (When I was in hardcore debt-paydown mode, $2,000 was a solid number for me.)

From there, many financial experts recommend setting aside three to six months of necessary expenses for a major financial emergency like losing your job. For a lot of people, three to six months of expenses might sound like an astronomical amount. Don’t panic. Note that that’s not the same thing as three to six months of what you typically spend in a month. If you abruptly lost your job, you would probably cut back on extras and cancel some subscriptions. So when you’re figuring out how much your job loss emergency fund should be, only add up the things you have to pay each month no matter what.

Park your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account. It might be tempting to invest that money or put it in a CD or other savings vehicle, but the whole point of this money is that it is liquid to you in case of an emergency. As interest rates rise, your savings account interest should be rising too. Tu said: “Don’t settle” for a few tenths of a percent when you could be getting 2% or higher. Shop around at a site like NerdWallet or Bankrate and make sure your rate is competitive.