Everyone agrees that Americans don’t have enough emergency savings (or retirement savings for that matter). But the idea behind emergency savings, and the way savings are measured, hides what low- and moderate-American households need savings for, and how much they are really saving. Households are saving for near-term small “emergencies.” And those emergencies—months where income is well below normal, or expenses spike above normal—happen so often that it prevents households from building up larger amounts for larger emergencies.