I'm 43 and spent my emergency fund on a sudden home repair and medical surgery. How can I rebuild my savings?

Christy Bieber

Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 4:02 AM 5 min read

When you've worked hard to save up an emergency fund, it can be really frustrating when all the money suddenly disappears. This may be especially true if you’re 43 years old and spent years saving for a sense of financial security.

The good news is that you were able to use that emergency fund to take care of your unexpected medical procedure and home repairs, so you should feel good about the fact that you were prepared and had the funds you needed when it counted most — without borrowing money.

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Of course, now you're vulnerable if any more surprise financial expenses come along, so you'll want to take steps to rebuild as soon as possible.

Here's why rebuilding is so important, and what you can do to make that happen.

Since you had to spend your entire emergency fund because of two unexpected costs, you already know that surprises do happen — and they can be expensive. However, data from Bankrate’s 2025 Annual Emergency Savings Report shows just how common it is for people to end up relying on their emergency savings.

According to the report, 37% of U.S. adults had to rely on their rainy day fund at least once during the last 12 months. Of those who used their emergency money, 80% spent it on unplanned expenses, day-to-day expenses or monthly bills.

Those who needed to use their emergency money unfortunately ended up spending a lot. In total, 26% spent between $1,000 and $2,499, while 22% spent between $500 and $999 and 18% less than $500. Some spent even more, with 15% pulling at least $5,000 from their account and 14% taking out somewhere between $2,500 and $4,999.

But this is not a new financial reality. Pew Charitable Trusts data from 2014 also found 60% of households had experienced a financial shock during the year prior to the study, and one third of households had two or more occurrences. The median cost of the most expensive of those shocks was $2,000, and the median household spent half its monthly income on its most expensive shock.

Unfortunately, since you've been forced to spend your entire emergency fund, you may now find yourself among the 37% of adults who the Federal Reserve reports can't cover a $400 unexpected expense with cash or the equivalent.