Build savings
A reserve changes whateverything else can survive.
It is the difference between a bad month and a setback that undoes a year of work. That is the whole argument, and it does not need a longer one.
How it works here
Your reserve is a goal like any other: named, tracked, and recorded as it grows — with the date and the source beside the figure, so the picture is current rather than remembered.
What it should reach is set with your advisory team, from what your own record shows. You will not find a rule of thumb here, because a rule of thumb is not a determination about your finances, and printing one would make it look like one.
Building it is ordinary monthly work — the same monthly actions the rest of your plan runs on, so it does not become a separate thing you have to remember.
It is one of the eight stages, not a footnote.
Stabilization is where the reserve begins, and every stage after it depends on the base holding.