(WASHINGTON) — The House on Wednesday is set to vote on legislation aimed at averting a strike by the nation’s railway workers, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced, reluctantly intervening in a labor dispute with wide-ranging economic and political implications.
First, the House will consider legislation to adopt the tentative deal between the rail companies and employees reached in September and brokered by the White House.
A second, separate vote — aimed at addressing progressive Democrats’ concerns over protecting workers — is set on a measure to add seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement, which now allows for only one.
Unless an agreement is imposed by Congress by a Dec. 9 deadline, much of the nation’s economy that depends on freight transportation would be disrupted — some estimates say up to $2 billion a day.
“The House will take up urgent and necessary legislation to that end: adopting the Tentative Agreement reached after months of hard-fought negotiations,” Pelosi said in a memo to colleagues on Tuesday.
“After hearing from our Members, we are in agreement that a nationwide rail strike must be prevented — and that more must be done to secure the paid sick leave that hard-working railroaders deserve.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said any House legislation to codify the existing tentative agreement will be accompanied by legislation that addresses the workers’ long standing demand for fair paid leave.
In a statement, Jayapal said that Pelosi announced a deal that allows the House to pass legislation for railway workers that includes paid sick leave after “productive conversations” between Congressional Progressive Caucus members, Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and House Leadership.
“The Progressive Caucus will continue to fight to ensure that all workers have paid sick leave guaranteed and that labor rights are upheld. I thank Speaker Pelosi and Leadership for their cooperation, and my Progressive Caucus colleagues for their indefatigable advocacy and commitment to workers’ rights,” Jayapal said in a statement.
The two-vote series also allows the Senate to act on the two bills separately. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, has been urging his Senate colleagues to consider boosting paid leave provisions.
The House votes come as President Joe Biden on Monday asked Congress to intervene and avert a potential strike, although he warned against making any changes to the negotiated agreement.
Both Biden, a self-professed pro-union president, and Pelosi noted their hesitation to step into the dispute.
“I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement,” Biden said on Monday. “But in this case — where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families — I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.”
Pelosi echoed Biden’s call to prioritize avert the wide-ranging economic consequences from a strike..
“It is with great reluctance that we must now move to bypass the standard ratification process for the Tentative Agreement. However, we must act to prevent a catastrophic strike that would touch the lives of nearly every family: erasing hundreds of thousands of jobs, including union jobs; keeping food and medicine off the shelves; and stopping small businesses from getting their goods to market,” she said.
(LONDON) — Prince William’s godmother and a longtime lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II has stepped down from her role amid an allegation of racism.
Buckingham Palace said Wednesday it launched an investigation into an accusation that Lady Susan Hussey made racist comments to an attendee at a palace reception hosted by Queen Camilla.
Ngozi Fulani, the founder of Sistah Space, a nonprofit organization that supports women and families affected by domestic abuse, shared in a Twitter post that she was asked repeatedly by Hussey where she was from.
“What part of Africa are you from?” Fulani alleges Hussey asked her, according to her tweet.
Fulani wrote that when she replied she was from the United Kingdom, Hussey continued to question her, allegedly saying, “Oh, I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?”
Fulani — who was at the palace for a reception on combatting violence against women, one of Camilla’s main charitable interests — wrote that she had “mixed feelings” about her visit to the palace, saying that after her conversation with Hussey, the “rest of the event is a blur.”
Hussey was one of Elizabeth’s longest-serving ladies-in-waiting, an honorary role that serves as a kind of personal assistant to the queen.
Camilla, who became queen consort after Elizabeth’s death in September, did away with the lady-in-waiting role, instead choosing to have lady companions, one of whom is Hussey’s daughter.
On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace confirmed Hussey had “stepped aside from her honorary role.”
“We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full details. In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made,” the palace said in a statement. “We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.”
The statement continued, “In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect. All members of the Household are being reminded of the diversity and inclusivity policies which they are required to uphold at all times.”
Prince William, who is starting a three-day trip in Boston Wednesday with his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, has not commented on the incident. Camilla has not commented beyond the statement from Buckingham Palace.
The apology from the palace comes less than two years after Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made bombshell allegations of racism within the royal institution in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
In the two-hour, prime-time interview, Harry and Meghan, who stepped down from their senior royal roles in 2020, alleged that conversations were had with Harry about the skin color of their son Archie, the first American British biracial royal born in the U.K., and also widely considered to be the first mixed-race child born into the royal family.
When Harry and Meghan were dating in 2016, Harry lambasted the “abuse and harassment” of Meghan, whose mother is Black and father is white, in the press and criticized “racial undertones” in some coverage of her.
Earlier this week, a senior police official confirmed the Sussexes faced “disgusting and very real” threats when they lived in the United Kingdom.
Neil Basu, the former head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, told Channel 4 News that there were serious and credible threats made against Meghan, mostly emanating from what Basu described as “extreme right-wing terrorism.”
“If you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time,” he said of the threats against Meghan. “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats.”
(NEW YORK) — Actress Mena Suvari is opening up about her struggles with mental health in the hopes that her honesty will make other mothers feel less alone.
“I struggle with postpartum every day,” said Suvari. “I remember sitting on our balcony freaking out saying, ‘I have to get out of the house. I have to do something for myself, but I can’t leave.’”
The 43-year-old star spoke to Rachel Bilson on her podcast, “Broad Ideas,” about new motherhood and her ongoing mental health journey.
Suvari married her husband Michael Hope in October 2018 and she gave birth to their son Christopher in April 2021. She said, at first, the responsibility of being a new parent felt overwhelming.
“I had to learn. I don’t have to be in his face 24/7 to raise a good human being because of my fear. It’s a lot of work,” said Suvari.
Suvari said some of her struggles stemmed from an unplanned C-section during the birth of her son.
“We as mothers are entitled to those emotions and just because they have a beautiful baby who’s perfectly healthy, I still feel like I’m allowed to hold some space for being sad over not having that birth,” said Suvari. “Because it’s not fair to just be like, ‘But you’re fine, right? But you didn’t die? But your baby’s okay?’”
While many women may get “baby blues,” defined as worry, sadness or tiredness, after having a baby, those symptoms typically resolve on their own within a few days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, doctors said, if these feelings persist longer than two weeks it may be postpartum depression.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of postpartum depression are similar to depression, but can also include feeling numb or disconnected from your baby, feeling excessive guilt about possibly not being a good mom, and doubting your ability to care for the baby.
Postpartum depression, like any serious medical condition, requires treatment by a doctor or a medical professional.
About 1 in 8 women with a recent live birth experience symptoms of postpartum depression, according to the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, conducted by the CDC.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a Dallas-based OBGYN, said that postpartum depression can last for years.
“Postpartum depression can last up to a year or years,” said Shepherd. “Make sure that you are connecting with your provider or reaching out to a therapist in order to decrease and minimize any future or severity of postpartum depression.”
Suvari said that, while she still struggles to get out of a dark place, she is grateful for the gift of motherhood.
“Miraculous, I never thought that something so beautiful would happen for me, for us. Something that I’ve always hoped for,” said Suvari, adding that she hopes that being vocal about her struggles will help others who also may be suffering. “This old lady just doesn’t want to play games anymore. And it’s like we have to talk about these things.”
If you are struggling with any mental health distress, including thoughts of hurting yourself, your baby, or any thoughts of suicide, text or call the crisis line at 988. Free help is available 24/7.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — University of Idaho students, back on campus following Thanksgiving break, will gather Wednesday night for a vigil for their four classmates who were mysteriously stabbed to death this month.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, her lifelong best friend, Madison Mogen, 21, another roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed in the girls’ off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13.
“You can’t imagine sending your girl to college and they come back … in an urn,” Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, told ABC News this week. “You’re numb … you can’t absorb that amount of pain and agony.”
No suspects have been identified.
Two other roommates in the house at the time survived the attacks, according to police. The surviving roommates are not considered suspects, police said.
The local Moscow police said it’s seeing an influx of 911 calls from the fearful community.
The candlelight vigil is at 8 p.m. ET.
Goncalves said the only thing worse than losing his child is knowing that her killer is “having a great life out there — and you’re just left in shambles.”
He said the families deserve justice.
“We just have to come together as a community,” Goncalves said. “Submit all those pieces of evidence … and get this guy off the streets.”
Police urge anyone with information to upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.
“Detectives are looking for context to the events and people involved in these murders,” Moscow police said. “Any odd or out-of-the-ordinary events that took place should be reported. Our focus is the investigation, not the activities. Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be a piece of the puzzle.”
(NEW YORK) — Over the past several days, protests have erupted in cities across China, as citizens push back against the country’s so-called “zero COVID” policy.
Since the virus began spreading across the world in January 2020, China has enforced harsh restrictions, including lockdowns and mass testing in an attempt to prevent outbreaks.
As most countries ease mitigation measures and focus on the importance of vaccination and boosting, China has kept the strict policy in place.
But public resentment over the disruption to daily life is growing, posing a problem for leader Xi Jinping and the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
“The Chinese government does not have a plan B or has not prepared for a way out of this zero COVID policy, and all these lockdowns,” Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News.
“You cannot keep a country locked down. Why? Because right now what’s happening in China is the economy has been impacted, the livelihood has been impacted and as a result, lives are being impacted meaning more mental health [crises], quality of life is really bad, more chronic conditions,” Mokdad said.
China implements its zero COVID policy
After the first cluster of patients were discovered in Wuhan in December 2019, a public notice was released on Dec. 31 and, about a week later, Chinese officials announced they had discovered a novel coronavirus.
Lockdowns were implemented in Wuhan, then in the larger Hubei Province — where Wuhan is located — and lastly in most of China. Travel was banned and those who tested positive for COVID with mild or moderate symptoms were removed from their homes to prevent household transmission.
COVID-19 cases peaked in China in early February 2020 before declining to low levels by the end of summer 2020.
At the end of the first wave, the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article arguing for a zero COVID strategy over more lax mitigation measures.
“The successful containment effort builds confidence in China, based on experience and knowledge gained, that future waves of COVID-19 can be stopped, if not prevented,” the authors wrote. “Case identification and management, coupled with identification and quarantine of close contacts, is a strategy that works.”
Only about 5,000 deaths have been reported in mainland China since the start of the pandemic, fewer than most countries with large populations including the U.S. and the U.K.
“The COVID policies were very effective in preventing people in China from getting the infection and dying, and that was a real achievement for the Chinese government,” Robert Sutter, a professor of practice of international affairs at George Washington University — with expertise in U.S.-China relations and China’s domestic and foreign affairs — told ABC News. “In 2020, they looked really good compared to the United States in particular, and they were handling it just fine and it was working well.”
“With the severe lockdown in Wuhan, they bought us time, all of us to be prepared and the Chinese health officials early on were really open about what they are seeing shared information, which really helped everybody’s response,” Mokdad added. “So, we need to give them that credit.”
Following the first outbreak, similar strict measures were enforced to control outbreaks happening elsewhere in China. But cases are now on the rise and the country reported its first COVID-19 deaths since May.
“Right now, the Chinese government, the policy that they have implemented, as successful as it was in the past first year, is a failure right now quite honestly,” Mokdad said.
Less effective vaccines
In July 2020, the Chinese government allowed the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to be administered under emergency use authorization. More than 90% of the population has been vaccinated, according to the government.
However, research has shown the Sinovac vaccine is just 60% effective at preventing severe disease compared to 90% for the Pfizer vaccine and 97% for the Moderna vaccine.
What’s more, when it comes to booster shots, only 69% of those aged 60 and older and 40% of those aged 80 and older have gotten boosted.
A combination of low vaccination rates and people not being exposed to the virus due to lockdowns has led to low immunity coverage.
“So, here you have a country that started a policy of locking down, but it resulted in less immunity,” Mokdad said. “The country, at the same time, has low vaccination coverage, a vaccine that is not effective or has low effectiveness against Omicron and all the variants that came after.”
He added, “So now if they open up, what will happen is they’ll have more cases, more mortality. They’ll overwhelm their hospitals.”
Sutter said it’s not clear why the Chinese government has rejected the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but it may be due to rejecting medicine from the traditional West in favor of their own vaccines or trying to convince the rest of the world they have the situation under control.
“On the one hand, they don’t want to bring in the U.S. vaccines given the state of their attitude toward the United States,” Sutter said. “And on the other hand, they don’t want to acknowledge that they mishandled the situation.”
Frustration bubbling
During the early days of the lockdown, Sutter said there was support among the Chinese public for the stringent measures.
However, tensions have been rising and protests have rung out in cities across China, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and the capital Beijing, after a fire in a high-rise building in Urumqi, a city that was under lockdown, led to the deaths of 10 people.
People have questioned whether COVID restrictions prevented residents from fleeing the burning building and first responders from helping.
In addition, the Draconian measures have also led to food shortages and have prevented people from visiting doctors’ offices for non-COVID-related visits.
“The zero COVID policy, it’s very disruptive for people’s lives and it leads to a lot of frustration,” Sutter said. “This has been going on now for three years and so I think there’s just a fatigue factor with it all. And people are fed up with the policy, particularly, as they learn more about other countries in the world, they’re all opening up.”
The government has tried to appease protesters, with Beijing announcing gates will no longer be erected around apartment complexes where COVID-19 cases are detected.
Sutter said he believes local officials may be worried about lifting restrictions because they will get blamed for any deaths.
“The local officials seem to be under the impression that they’re going to be held responsible if there are deaths in their area,” he said. “So, it leads to a very confused situation with a lot of local officials being cautious and therefore not changing the zero COVID policies because if they have a lot of deaths, they will be held responsible, and they will suffer the consequences.”
Meanwhile, over the last week, China has been reporting a record number of COVID-19 infections, mainly due to more transmissible variants.
Mokdad said if China is ever to exit from the zero COVID strategy, officials need to convince the government to accept more effective vaccines and to ease restrictions slowly.
“That’s the key message for the Chinese government, that the virus is not going anywhere,” he said. “It’s mutating, and we have more deadly or more infectious variants. And unless you have immunity, you’re not going to be able to avoid getting infected. And the only way to get immunity is either through infection, which we don’t want, or through vaccination.”
(NEW YORK) — Months before Prince William and Catherine, princess of Wales, were set to visit Boston — their first trip to the U.S. since 2014 — one little-known American government agency sprang into action.
The royal couple on Wednesday begins a three-day swing in Massachusetts culminating in an awards ceremony Friday night.
Agents from the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) — diplomats with badges and guns — make up their protective detail, according to two senior DSS officials who spoke with ABC News.
“We are the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. Department of State and we protect the secretary of state, foreign dignitaries who are visiting the United States foreign ministers, former heads of state, members of the royal family, in this case, as well as U.S. citizens, athletes, corporate sponsors,” Andrew Wroblewski the deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) for domestic operations, said.
Wroblewski, who served on various protective details himself during his tenure at the agency, said they have been working with the United Kingdom to get the schedule and protection strategy firmed up.
“So, whenever the Diplomatic Security Service has a visiting foreign dignitary, what we do is we assess the threat against that dignitary in the United States,” he explained without getting into specifics about the royal couple’s visit. “We have our Threat Investigations and Analysis Directorate, they’ll actually look at all source reporting from open source to classified intelligence. And we’ll make it a determination on whether or not we need to protect that person and at what level we need to provide protection.”
Matthew O’Brien, the assistant special agent in charge of the Boston DSS field office, the lead office for the visit, told ABC News preparations started in September, and have involved 11 law enforcement agencies — from local police to state police and the federal government.
“I’m confident in the plan we’ve we’ve built,” he said. “I will say that we cannot do anything without our state and local partners.”
The Boston field office is one of the 33 different offices in the United States. Where the agency’s presence is really felt is in the 170 countries the agency is in.
They are also protecting the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team at the 2022 World Cup, according to the officials.
The movements of the royal couple are “choreographed down to the minute” and the same goes for the security plan, O’Brien said.
(NEW YORK) — A housekeeper at a five-star luxury hotel has been hospitalized after encountering a powdery substance in a hotel room that was allegedly left by a man who trespassed on the property illegally.
The incident began on Sunday evening at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, New York, when the unnamed suspect swiped into a room on the 11th floor of the upscale midtown hotel at approximately 8:30 p.m.
The room he entered had been vacant for several hours after a family who had been staying at the hotel since Nov. 22 checked out earlier that morning. Authorities believe that the family, who had been allocated five room keys, may have dropped one of them while they were checking out, according to ABC News’ New York City station WABC-TV.
The suspect spent the next 14 hours in the room and left at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday morning. However, when a housekeeper went to go clean the room, she encountered a powdery substance that immediately made her sick, according to WABC.
Personnel from the New York City Fire Department were called to the scene to investigate but since the substance had already been swept up during the cleaning process, authorities tested the remaining residue that was left behind which resulted in a positive test for traces of an explosive substance, according to WABC.
As a precaution, authorities subsequently evacuated the entire 11th floor of the hotel so they could test multiple surfaces around the premises.
“All subsequent tests of the surfaces were met with negative results,” said Assistant Chief James McCarthy of the New York Police Department in a press conference following the incident. “There were no trace amounts of hazardous materials detected. At this time we feel that the earlier test results were a false positive.”
The housekeeper who fell ill was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive.
The hotel is currently investigating why the room key card was not deactivated after the prior guests ended their stay and how the man was able to access the room for such a lengthy period of time.
Authorities have reviewed surveillance footage of the suspect at the hotel and confirmed that they were able to identify him. Though police have not yet publicly confirmed his identity, they say that he has 16 previous arrests for low level crimes and was described as homeless.
“I want to stress to all New Yorkers and visitors that there’s no credible threat against the city at this time,” said McCarthy.
The investigation into the incident, as well as the pursuit of the suspect, is currently ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — Rhinoceros populations are beginning to rebound in the species’ native home of Zimbabwe, a sign that efforts to preserve the species are working, according to animal conservationists.
The rhino population in Zimbabwe has surpassed more than 1,000 animals for the first time in more than 30 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group. This includes 614 black and 415 white rhinos, listed as critically endangered and near threatened on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, respectively.
Dedicated conservationists continue to persevere in protecting the country’s rhinos “with great success,” despite soaring costs for food and fuel, according to the International Rhino Foundation, which was founded 31 years ago amid a poaching crisis.
The populations have thrived due to intensive protection, monitoring and management of these animals, Christopher Whitlatch, spokesperson for the International Rhino Foundation, told ABC News.
Included in the population of black rhinos in Zimbabwe’s Bubye Valley Conservancy is Pumpkin, who was injured and orphaned by poachers and continues to flourish after she was re-released into the wild just months later.
During a routine patrol in July 2020, conservationists from the Lowveld Rhino Trust found Pumpkin’s mother, who had been killed by poachers, Whitlatch said. Near her body, the conservationists noticed “little bloody footprints,” to which they tracked down Pumpkin, who was still alive but had been shot in the torso by the poachers and was severely injured, Whitlatch said. She was just about 16 months at the time.
Pumpkin’s will to live was apparent from the get-go, as were her “spunk” and “charisma,” Whitlatch said. She even took a bottle from her caregivers, a foreign concept to baby rhinos that gave them confidence that she would survive.
After some months of rehabilitation, Pumpkin was released in October 2020 back into the protected land, home to most of the rhinos in Zimbabwe and where she continues to thrive today, Whitlatch said.
Pumpkin is monitored on a regular basis, and has even made the acquaintance of a young male black rhino of the same age named Rocky, giving conservationists hope that they will mate and reproduce, Whitlatch added.
However, it has still been a difficult year for rhinos, according to the International Rhino Foundation. After a temporary lull in poaching due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, criminal networks have quickly adapted to the new challenges, and poaching rates and trade volume have begun increasing again this year, according to the IRF.
“Large, organized crime groups, who see wildlife trafficking as low-risk, high-reward crime, became even more involved in rhino horn trade during the pandemic, monopolizing key networks and moving higher volumes of horn,” the conservation said in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — The Luzerne County Board of Elections in Pennsylvania is set to meet on Wednesday to vote again on certifying the county’s results from the 2022 midterm election — two days after an unusual delay caused by two Republicans and one Democrat on the board.
According to ABC affiliate WNEP-TV, two Republican members of the board voted at a Monday meeting against certifying the results while two Democrats voted to certify and one Democratic member abstained.
Local paper The Times Leader reported that the board members who voted not to certify cited paper ballot issues on Election Day, and many who attended the public meeting spoke against certifying the results.
On Election Day in Luzerne County, numerous polling places ran out of ballot paper, but a judge issued an order extending in-person voting hours at the polls.
“We went over everything meticulously as far as the reconciliations, that’s any anomalies were pretty much explained. And it was due to the confusion at the polls because of the paper shortage,” Democratic member Audrey Serniak said at Monday’s meeting.
The board member who abstained, Daniel Schramm, initially told WNEP that “I wanted more information so I could make a sure decision on that it’s right to certify it.”
WNEP later reported that Schramm said Monday, after the vote to delay, that his concerns about the election had been addressed and he was ready to vote to certify.
According to The Times Leader, County Assistant Solicitor Paula Radick said at the Monday meeting that the state or candidates could take legal action against the county for not certifying the results.
The Pennsylvania Department of State told ABC News in a statement on Monday that it had contacted Luzerne County officials “to inquire about the board’s decision and their intended next steps.”
In Pennsylvania’s key statewide races, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz received more votes in Luzerne County in the Senate race, while Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro received more votes by a slimmer margin in Luzerne County in the gubernatorial race.
Shapiro went on to win statewide, defeating Republican Doug Mastriano; Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
The delay in certifying the election results in Luzerne County comes at the same time that a county in Arizona, Cochise County, has also delayed certifying its results, prompting a lawsuit from the Arizona secretary of state.
In Cochise, two Republicans voted on Monday to delay certification over the objections over the board’s lone Democrat, who said in a statement that “the other board members accept[ed] unsubstantiated ideas and unverified claims as facts instead of relying on the Arizona State Elections Office.”
(NEW YORK) — We’ve been taught to expect the unexpected, and when it comes to finances, the best way to do that is with an emergency fund.
An emergency fund contains cash for unforeseen moments “that throw your life into financial uncertainty and disarray,” said Rebecca Jarvis, ABC News’ chief business and economics correspondent. These could include a death in the family, a debilitating illness, a divorce or a job loss.
“Life is full of surprises and sometimes they have a giant price tag,” Jarvis said.
How much should you save in your emergency fund?
Jarvis points out that emergency funds should be for “hurricanes” as opposed to “rainy day” inconveniences such as car repairs or broken appliances or phones.
“You want to look at your weekly budget — how much are you spending on food and groceries? What is the cost of electricity and utilities? How much do you have to pay for rent or your mortgage? These are all necessities, things that you would have to make payments on in order to keep the status quo,” Jarvis said.
She recommends building up six months’ worth of these expenses for your emergency fund.
“But if you can’t get there right away, at least [try to] have three months worth of savings to cover all the necessities,” Jarvis said, noting that if you have children or job instability, you may eventually wish to save a larger padding.
If that total is a challenge, “it can be helpful to start with a smaller number, like $500, which can still be crucial in getting you through a difficult time,” said Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet, who shared a calculator that can help determine an amount you can strive to reach.
“The goal here is to give yourself that cushion so that you’re not shouldering the financial burden, along with the emotional burden, of these major lifestyle changes,” Jarvis said.
“Knowing that the money is there if you need it creates a peace of mind and a freedom to live in the present and not be thinking constantly about what happens in the future if you don’t have this safety net,” she said.
Where to put your money and how to save
Even though your emergency fund is a last resort, that money should be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, Jarvis said.
A savings account or a money market fund are options to contain your emergency fund, as are CDs, 401(k)s or even IRAs, but some of these can have fees associated with them for early withdrawals.
As far as contributing toward your emergency fund, Jarvis suggests making it a part of your budget.
“Give a little to that emergency fund every week, every month, until you get to the point where you have those six months of savings on hand,” she said, further suggesting tracking and celebrating your progress along the way.
And if you’re carrying a lot of debt, Jarvis recommends building your emergency savings, even if you have to scale back on debt payments.
“You should be building out that emergency fund before you build out anything else, because it is going to be the underpinnings of having some degree of security and knowing that if the unforeseen crops up, you have the ability to take care of yourself and your family,” she said.
“Having that emergency savings fund can help prevent you from accruing even more debt if you face an unexpected emergency,” Palmer added.
“If you don’t have an emergency savings fund or you’ve depleted your emergency savings fund, create that line item, that small amount in your budget where you are consistently setting a little bit of money aside so that when and if you need it again in the future, you have it,” Jarvis said.
Additionally, Palmer suggests taking a look at your spending on “wants” each month, which can include eating out, subscriptions, clothing, etc.
“If you can cut back on those categories and redirect the money into savings instead, it can be a great way to build up your emergency fund,” she said, noting the 50/30/20 budget plan to assess and reallocate your funds.
Protect your hard work
“In general, you should keep your emergency fund for true emergencies and have other [long-term and short-term] savings accounts for other goals, such as vacations or big purchases,” Palmer said. “Keeping it in a savings account designated for emergencies instead of your daily checking account can be one way to help keep it separate.”
And also make sure you’re assessing “emergencies” with a clear head.
“Here’s a good barometer: Consider whether you actually need something to survive. If you don’t, it’s not an emergency,” Jarvis said.
“Building an emergency savings takes work and the last thing you want is to undo all of that hard work with a decision on the fly,” Jarvis added. “Going on a cruise is not an emergency.”
