Emergency Funds by Ria

Securing the doors for takeoff is an essential safety protocol onboard any flight.

All airlines know the importance of securing doors and seat belts as part of their security protocol. But, one airline in particular went further to also secure the financial future of their employees starting with emergency funds.

Delta Airlines which rose to top-5 best employers of 2025 uses a listen-act-listen approach in communicating with their employees and after receiving feedback through employee engagement surveys about the need for more financial guidance and support, the airline launched an Emergency Savings Program in 2023, in which employees could attend financial wellness training and earn $1,000 for a rainy-day fund. To date, more than 40,000 employees have participated in the program. Imagine! Attending a training program and getting paid to attend it, it is a win-win. We earn some money and learn a lot while doing that.

In the Teens Who Invest Sessions, we dedicate time to talking about Budgets and Emergency Funds. Funds that we do not touch for daily use, and which are set aside for emergencies.

It is a researched statistic that 60% of adults in the US do not have access to $1,000 as emergency funds, when $1,000 can help most families in emergencies.

I firmly believe that saving $1,000 and not accessing it at all is not that difficult for all of us. If we set aside $5 everyday, we will get to $1000 in 200 days or about 7 months. That is not too hard. 

I urge all of you as readers to practice saving, and setting money aside for a rainy day.

Learning corner: Emergency funds are also called rainy day funds, contingency funds or life happens funds.

Here is an excellent article from Investopedia on how to build an Emergency Fund https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/emergency_fund.asp

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelpeachman/2025/10/08/meet-the-worlds-best-employers-2025/