Finance
61% of young adults are financially stressed, report finds. Here's one safety net that can help
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Many young adults have financial stress, and experts say there’s a simple safety net that could help.
About 61% of surveyed Americans of ages 18 to 35 are financially stressed, according to a new Intuit survey. About 21% of respondents say their stress has gotten worse over the past year.
Some of the biggest stressors included high cost of living, job instability and growing housing costs. Of those who identified as financially stressed, 32% said handling unexpected emergencies like medical bills, car repairs and home maintenance trigger their anxiety with cash, the report found.
The site polled 2,000 adults of ages 18 to 35 in December.
Young adults lack a plan for money emergencies
Some of the stress can come from not having a plan — about 32% of all survey respondents admit they lack a clear strategy for managing money setbacks, Intuit found.
Almost half, or 45%, of the group say handling unexpected expenses was a challenge, and 29% have difficulty saving money.
A new report by Bankrate reflects a similar picture. The report found that older generations are more likely to say they could pay for an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense from their savings.
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About 59% of baby boomers, or those of ages 61 to 79, can pay for a $1,000 surprise expense from savings. The cohort is followed by 42% of Gen Xers, or of ages 45 to 60.
Yet, only 32% of millennials — ages 29 to 44 — and 28% of Gen Z adults — ages 18 to 28 — have the cash readily available, according to the survey, which polled 1,039 respondents ages 18 and older in early December.
“The youngest generations are those who are earliest in their financial journey,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.
‘Setting ourselves up for failure’ without savings
Financial emergencies can catch us by surprise, from needing a locksmith because you lost your keys to unexpectedly losing your job. The best thing you can do to prepare is have savings set aside and carefully using lines of credit, experts say.
“For emergencies, it’s really having that cash reserve in place. That is the financial plan,” said certified financial planner Clifford Cornell, an associate financial advisor at Bone Fide Wealth in New York City.
Having an emergency savings fund is like having a bulletproof vest, Hamrick explained.
“They won’t save you in all outcomes, but it’s a good start,” he said.
Many Gen Zers need to gear up. About 80% of the cohort are more likely than other generations to worry about not having enough money to cover living expenses if they lost their primary job, per Bankrate data.
That’s compared to 72% of millennials, 72% of Gen Xers and 58% of baby boomers.
“We’re really setting ourselves up for failure if we don’t have sufficient emergency savings,” Hamrick said.
How to start an emergency fund
Whether you can put away $10, $50 or $150 a month, the important part is to start building the habit of saving as soon as you can, Cornell said.
If you’re in the position where you haven’t put any thought to saving for unexpected costs, here’s where to start, according to experts:
1. Open a high-yield savings account
You want your emergency savings to sit in a highly-liquid account, or somewhere you can withdraw savings quickly and without penalties, experts say. To give your funds an extra boost, experts recommend a high-yield savings account.
While interest rates have come down from peak highs, the best high-yield savings accounts offer on average 4.31% annual percentage yields, or APYs, per Bankrate data.
To compare, traditional savings accounts offer a 0.51% APY on average nationwide, per DepositAccounts.
We’re really setting ourselves up for failure if we don’t have sufficient emergency savings.
Mark Hamrick
senior economic analyst at Bankrate
For every $1,000 you add into a HYSA, you can earn about $40 a year in interest at those rates. While $40 doesn’t sound like a lot at first blush, it’s significantly higher than what you’d earn in a traditional savings account, Cornell said.
There are many HYSAs available. As you consider your options, you want to double-check the one you pick is FDIC-insured, which protects your deposits at insured banks and savings associations if the company fails.
2. Calculate how much you can save every month
Figuring out how much cash you can save will depend on how much money you earn versus spend in a given month, Cornell said.
Some rules of thumb can be good starting points. For instance, the 50-30-20 rule is a budget framework that allocates 50% of your income toward essentials like housing, food and utilities, 30% toward “wants” or discretionary spending and the remaining 20% to savings and investments.
Yet, it’s not easy to follow, especially for a young person starting out their career — saving 20% of their income can be a tall order, Cornell said.
It’s fine to start off with less, and look for opportunities in your budget to save more. For example, saving part of an annual raise or tax refund.
3. Set a goal
First aim for three months’ worth of expenses as a goal, Cornell said. Once you meet that goal, consider the next: advisors often recommend you ultimately have three to six months, but some people may benefit from even more. In some cases, it’s a year or more.
Imagine having enough cash that can sustain you during a long stretch of unemployment: “It’s kind of like a pillow or a safety blanket,” he said.
The more variable your income — say, if you depend on commissions or bonuses, or your income fluctuates every month — the more savings you’ll need to hold you over in case something comes up, Cornell said.
Keep in mind that coming up with enough savings to tide you over for three months can take a long time. While saving so much can be daunting, experts say even having a small buffer of a few hundred dollars can help.
For instance, the Federal Reserve measures how many adults are able to cover a $400 emergency cost, a much lower benchmark.
Even a small level of savings may be enough to cover minor emergencies, or help offset how much you need to borrow.
Finance
Delta Air Lines announces March quarter 2026 financial results
Delta Air Lines today reported financial results for the March quarter and provided its outlook for the June quarter.
- Delivered March quarter earnings in line with initial guidance on broad demand strength driving better-than-expected revenue performance
- Guiding to low-teens revenue growth in the June quarter on flat capacity growth, reflecting strong demand momentum, meaningful capacity reductions, and rapid actions to recapture higher fuel
- Expect June quarter pre-tax profit of around $1 billion, on a more than $2 billion increase in fuel expense at the forward curve
- Continuing to strengthen investment-grade balance sheet, with adjusted net debt below 2019 levels
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today reported financial results for the March quarter and provided its outlook for the June quarter.
“Delta’s results underscore the power of our brand and the durability of our financial foundation,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s Chief Executive Officer. “We delivered earnings that were more than 40% higher than last year, even with a significant increase in fuel costs and operational disruptions across the industry. Our results are powered by the Delta people, who will always be our greatest competitive advantage. In February, we celebrated $1.3 billion in profit‑sharing payouts, similar to last year and more than the rest of the industry combined.”
Bastian continued, “Demand remains strong, and we are taking actions to protect our margins and cash flow. This includes meaningfully reducing capacity growth, with a downward bias until the fuel environment improves, and moving quickly to recapture higher fuel costs. Delta is best positioned to navigate this environment, with a leading brand, strong financial foundation, and the benefit of our refinery. In the June quarter, we expect to lead the industry with $1 billion of profit. And while the recent fuel spike is currently impacting earnings, I’m confident this environment ultimately reinforces Delta’s leadership and accelerates long-term earnings power.”
March Quarter 2026 GAAP Financial Results
- Operating revenue of $15.9 billion
- Operating income of $501 million with an operating margin of 3.2%
- Pre-tax loss of $214 million with a pre-tax margin of (1.4) %
- Loss per share of ($0.44)
- Operating cash flow of $2.4 billion
Read the full release on PR Newswire or via download.
Forward Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections, goals, aspirations, commitments or strategies for the future, should be considered “forward-looking statements” under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are not guarantees or promised outcomes and should not be construed as such. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections, goals, aspirations, commitments and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the possible effects of serious accidents involving our aircraft or aircraft of our airline partners; breaches or lapses in the security of technology systems we use and rely on, which could compromise the data stored within them, as well as failure to comply with evolving global privacy and security regulatory obligations or adequately address increasing customer focus on privacy issues and data security; disruptions in our information technology infrastructure; failure of the technology we use or depend on to perform effectively, including new and emerging technologies; increases in the price of aircraft fuel; extended disruptions in the supply of aircraft fuel, including from Monroe Energy, LLC (“Monroe”), our wholly-owned subsidiary that operates the Trainer refinery; failure to achieve expected results or returns from our commercial relationships with airlines in other parts of the world and the investments we have in certain of those airlines; the effects of a significant disruption in the operations or performance of third parties on which we rely; failure to comply with the financial or other covenants in our financing agreements; labor-related disruptions; the effects on our business of seasonality and other factors beyond our control, such as changes in value in our equity investments, severe weather conditions, natural disasters or other environmental events, including from the impact of climate change; failure or inability of insurance to cover a significant liability at Monroe’s refinery; failure to comply with existing and future environmental regulations to which Monroe’s refinery operations are subject, including those relating to the discharge of materials into the environment, waste management, pollution prevention measures and greenhouse gas emissions; significant damage to our reputation and brand, including from exposure to significant adverse publicity or inability to achieve certain sustainability goals; our ability to retain senior management and other key employees, and to maintain our company culture; disease outbreaks or other public health threats, and measures implemented to combat them; the effects of terrorist attacks, geopolitical conflict or security events; competitive conditions in the airline industry; extended interruptions or disruptions in service at major airports where we operate; significant problems associated with types of aircraft or engines we operate; the effects of extensive regulatory and legal compliance requirements we are subject to; the impact of laws and regulations governing environmental protection, including but not limited to regulation of hazardous substances, increased regulation to reduce emissions and other risks associated with climate change, and the cost of compliance with more stringent environmental regulations; and unfavorable economic or political conditions in the markets in which we operate or volatility in currency exchange rates.
Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 and other filings filed with the SEC from time to time. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of the date of this press release, and which we undertake no obligation to update except to the extent required by law.
© 2026 Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Finance
Houghton students put lessons to the test at Financial Reality Fair
HOUGHTON, Mich. (WLUC) – As students prepare to graduate in the coming weeks, the cost of living continues to grow around them.
One Houghton County school hopes to prepare them to financially face those obstacles.
“It’s all really mundane things that you wouldn’t usually think that you would need a class to learn,” Senior Katie Manchester said. “But then you’re in the class, and you’re like ‘Oh, this is actually really helpful’”.
Manchester is among the juniors and seniors at Houghton High School who participated in its third annual Financial Reality Fair on Tuesday. Each year, students in the school’s Personal Finance class get a glimpse into what independent life could be like after graduation.
Personal finance teacher Jennifer Rubin says that students learning personal finance skills is more important than ever.
“Everyone’s pocketbooks have been stretched,” Rubin said. “I think people see it in their own households. They see it with their parents struggling with finances, and they see gas prices. They’re seeing all of these things having much more of an impact than maybe it used to be a few years ago.”
Rubin says students got hands-on training during the fair, making financial decisions and budgeting. Senior Elli Sommerville found this particularly useful.
“I knew about budgeting beforehand, but actually getting to do it was really helpful,” Sommerville said. “We worked on it for about a month.”
Student Kylie Hatman said the fair helped her better understand her habits.
“Budgeting is a main thing for me,” Hatman. “I figured out that I don’t spend as much as I think I do. I liked the ‘Budget Down to Zero’ method. Figuring out how to format that really helped me.”
Rubin notes that these students will soon take these skills and teach them to a younger generation at Houghton-Portage Elementary School.
“Tomorrow, all seniors in personal finance are partnering with an elementary classroom, and they’re going to be teaching the elementary kids,” Rubin added. “They’re going to be the teacher.”
The video above will feature the TV6 livestream until staff can clip the corresponding story, if available, from broadcasts or other TV6 content. You can subscribe to our YouTube page or download TV6+ to stream the latest local news and weather.
Copyright 2026 WLUC. All rights reserved.
Finance
Landscape of Climate Finance in Ethiopia – CPI
Macroeconomic reforms and escalating climate shocks are placing climate finance at the center of Ethiopia’s development trajectory. The country contributes 0.4% of global emissions but faces high climate risks, particularly due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture and hydropower. At the same time, high inflation, foreign-exchange shortages, rising debt service obligations, and a recent sovereign default have constrained fiscal space and raised the cost of capital. Ethiopia must therefore rapidly scale up climate investment in line with its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), while navigating macroeconomic constraints and the declining predictability of international concessional and donor finance.
Ethiopia’s climate policy framework is increasingly investment-oriented, moving from ambition to action. Building on the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy (2011) and earlier NDCs, the country’s NDC 3.0 (2025–2035) shifts from high-level ambition toward defined sectoral pathways and financing needs. Parallel reforms signaling growing institutional readiness include greening the financial sector under the National Bank of Ethiopia, developing a national green taxonomy, capital market reforms linked to the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, and emerging carbon market frameworks. However, coordination challenges, fragmented mandates, and limited project preparation capacity continue to constrain delivery.
Tracking how climate finance is mobilized and deployed is critical to inform policy decisions, guiding development partner strategies, and identify opportunities to crowd in domestic and private capital. This second iteration of the Landscape of Climate Finance in Ethiopia provides an updated baseline of project-level climate finance commitments for 2019 to 2023, with a focus on the biennial average for 2022 and 2023. It tracks flows across mitigation, adaptation, and dual-benefit activities, mapping finance from domestic and international sources, through public and private actors, to instruments and end-use sectors.
This assessment draws on publicly available and proprietary datasets compiled on a best-effort basis. Data gaps remain material, especially for domestic public spending, given the absence of systematized climate budget tagging, and for certain private sector investments that are not consistently disclosed. As a result, some flows, particularly domestic public spending and difficult-to-track private investments, are likely underestimated.
Key findings
- Ethiopia’s climate finance has gradually increased but must rise by at least fourfold to meet identified needs. Tracked flows averaged USD 2.3 billion annually in 2022/23, equivalent to approximately 1.7% of GDP. This is an 11% increase from the annual average of USD 2.1 billion in 2020/21 but still well below the estimated USD 10.6 billion annual requirement under the NDC 3.0 (2025–2035).
- Ethiopia’s heavy reliance on international public sources exposes its climate agenda to the constraints of external concessional finance. In 2022/23, 93% of tracked flows originated from international public sources. Public actors committed approximately USD 2.2 billion annually, primarily through grants (80%) and concessional debt (14%). Multilateral development finance institutions and donor governments were the largest providers. This concentration underscores the urgency of mobilizing broader and more sustainable domestic and private funding sources.
- Ethiopia’s shallow capital markets and regulatory uncertainty have limited private climate finance. Private actors contributed USD 113 million annually in 2022/23, representing less than 5% of total flows. This is insufficient to signal a functioning market or provide any buffer against public finance volatility. Private flows were concentrated in agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) and small-scale energy activities. Investments were influenced by guarantee-backed transactions and philanthropic grants. Macroeconomic risk, currency constraints, shallow capital markets, and regulatory uncertainty continue to deter private participation at scale.
- Adaptation finance accounts for the majority of Ethiopia’s climate flows, reflecting the country’s high vulnerability to drought, hydrological variability, and disaster risk. Adaptation represented 59% of tracked climate finance in 2022/23 (USD 1.4 billion annually), a slight rise from 56% in 2019/20. This finance was overwhelmingly grant-based (92%) and internationally sourced. While they exceed mitigation in volume, adaptation flows remain far below the estimated USD 4 billion annual need.
- Mitigation finance remains insufficient relative to emissions structure and targets and costed needs. These flows averaged approximately USD 500 million annually, compared to the estimated USD 6.6 billion requirement under NDC 3.0. Finance was concentrated in the energy sector and largely concessional in nature. Mitigation flows declined relative to 2020/21 due to project cycle effects. The AFOLU sector, a large source of emissions, received a small share of mitigation finance, highlighting a structural imbalance between emissions sources and investment patterns.
- Cross-sectoral and resilience-oriented programs feature prominently across both mitigation and adaptation. In 2022/23, adaptation investment averaged USD 644 million, mitigation investment USD 77 million, and dual-benefit projects received USD 306 million. These flows targeted initiatives such as disaster-risk management, food security, institutional capacity building, and policy support. This reflects Ethiopia’s integrated CRGE vision and climate–development nexus and requires strong coordination, monitoring, and financial management systems.
- Institutional reform momentum is building, but delivery constraints persist. Ethiopia has implemented several climate-related reforms, including fuel subsidy reform, electric mobility incentives, financial sector greening initiatives, carbon market readiness efforts, and capital market development. These reforms can help to mobilize domestic and private capital. Yet fragmented governance structures, limited project preparation capacity, incomplete climate finance tracking systems, and constrained fiscal space continue to limit the scale and predictability of flows.
Recommendations
Strengthening governance, institutional capacity, and monitoring systems can help align climate finance mandates, build investable pipelines, and improve investor confidence. Strategic use of concessional finance, supportive regulation, and appropriate financial instruments can help mobilize private capital over time. This report highlights six priority actions for scaling Ethiopia’s climate finance:
- Strengthen climate finance governance to accelerate implementation. Enhance the role of the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy as an inter-ministerial coordination mechanism with clear mandates and decision rights. This should link NDC planning to budget allocation, including climate budget tagging, and be aligned with public financial management processes. TCRGE efforts can serve as a central platform for screening and prioritizing NDC-aligned projects, coordinating technical assistance, and structuring blended finance/PPP transactions.
- Build capacity for project preparation as well as institutional and subnational delivery to convert policy ambition into implementable pipelines. Improve technical capacity for feasibility studies, financial structuring, safeguards, risk allocation, and results-based planning across line ministries and subnational institutions, and establish standardized project preparation tools and targeted support for high-priority sectors, particularly AFOLU.
- Strengthen climate finance tracking, transparency, and data credibility. Climate budget tagging could be extended to regional and local levels, as well as to climate-aligned sectors such as energy, AFOLU, transport, water and wastewater, buildings and infrastructure and industry. Embedding tagging in budget execution and reporting can reconcile climate-relevant expenditures with actual spending and outputs.
- Optimize scarce public resources through catalytic de-risking and innovative fiscal instruments. Ethiopia must meet its NDC3.0 USD 2.4 billion annual domestic public finance target amid fiscal constraints, including rising debt servicing (13% of revenue), declining tax-to-GDP ratio (7.5%), and volatile donor finance. The country can strategically use its CRGE Facility and national funds to provide guarantees or first-loss capital to crowd in private flows. Aggregation mechanisms (SPVs, Platform-based structures, financial intermediary aggregation) can also help accelerate a shift from small, planning-oriented grants to scalable investments. Debt-for-climate swaps may be another viable source.
- Unlock international and institutional capital through stronger enabling frameworks and domestic markets. High country risk, regulatory gaps, and weak monitoring limit private investment. Momentum is building through initiatives such as Ethiopia’s National Carbon Market Strategy, the establishment of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, and the NBE’s Greening Financial Systems program. Next steps could include frameworks and regulations for carbon markets, green bonds, and other climate-aligned instruments to reduce uncertainty, enable transactions, and scale local-currency finance. Carbon markets offer a near-term opportunity to mobilize private capital, given the country’s land restoration and reforestation programs.
- Scale finance for sectors that are hard to abate or prioritized under the NDC 3.0. The limited climate finance flowing to industry represents a missed opportunity, given the sector’s importance in shaping Ethiopia’s long-term emissions trajectory and development ambition. Costed pipelines for carbon-intensive sectors, blended finance, and technical assistance for project preparation, standards, and technology deployment can help direct more capital to NDC 3.0 mitigation priorities, including industrial energy efficiency, fuel switching, and low-carbon technologies.
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