Good news! Because your family makes enough money to meet its basic needs without assistance, move to Step B.

The Our Money Needs Calculator provides you with the household income needed to meet the basic needs of the adults and children living in your home, based on the North Carolina county you live in.

•  Housing
•  Child Care
•  Food
•  Transportation
•  Health Care
•  Miscellaneous
•  Tax and Tax Credits
•  Emergency Savings

Beyond meeting basic needs, the next step toward a secure future is to create an emergency fund. This fund can help your family cover unplanned events such as a job loss, car repairs, or health challenges.

A good rule of thumb is to have an emergency fund that covers your family's basic needs for about 2 ½ months.

Once your family has an emergency fund in place, move to Step C.

Once your family's basic needs are covered and your family has an emergency fund, you can choose how you will create long-term financial security for your family.

Three Pathways to Consider:

• Additional education: High school diplomas no longer have the same value in the job market. This option might sound difficult, but it is realistic, doable, and beneficial. There are many ways to obtain an education beyond high school, like vocational training, an associate's degrees, special certificates, or a bachelor’s degree.
• Home stability: Includes moving to more stable rental housing or becoming a first-time homeowner.
• Saving for retirement: Social Security isn’t enough to help most families make ends meet, and will probably help even fewer families in the future. The sooner you start saving money for retirement, the more it grows and the more you will have in the future. Find out how much savings you need for retirement.

Our goal is to support families in making informed choices about their needs and their future. For more detail on each of these pathways and in-depth guidance, read the full Economic Security Pathways Report.