By Kate Ashford, NerdWallet

Although government shutdowns are a semi-recurring feature of American government, the most recent closure was the longest on record at 43 days — and left many feeling anxious.

In just the second week of the closure, 41% of American adults reported reducing spending, 29% said they were delaying major purchases and 21% were dipping into savings to cover expenses due to the shutdown, according to a poll from GoDaddy and HarrisX.

“This is certainly nothing new, but I think what happened with this one was, in a very strange way, kind of a good reminder that sometimes they can go on for longer,” says Melissa Caro, a certified financial planner based in New York City and founder of the digital platform My Retirement Network.

If you were directly affected by the shutdown, there are practical steps you can take to be better prepared in the future. And even if you weren’t, these are smart financial habits worth considering.

Pad your emergency fund

Experts typically recommend that everyone have a savings cushion available for unexpected costs. If your income would be affected by a government shutdown, however, an emergency fund is even more crucial.

“We encourage and counsel clients to have six to nine months of ready cash,” says Jay Spector, a CFP with EverVest Financial in Scottsdale, Arizona.

If you’re not there yet, set up an automatic transfer from your paycheck on paydays to help build your cash base. In fact, Spector recommends making emergency savings a line item in your budget.

“It should be next to your haircuts, your grocery bill, your vet bill,” Spector says. “Pay yourself first before you pay anybody else.”

If you’re a government employee, Caro recommends setting aside a separate shutdown fund, because your situation is more directly tied to what happens at the federal level.

“If you are a federal employee or contractor, sadly this is part of your reality now,” Caro says.

Set up cash backups

An emergency fund is ideal, but if it’s not possible or you haven’t saved enough yet, consider applying for a home equity line of credit as a safety net, says Byrke Sestok, a CFP with Moneco Advisors in Harrison, New York.

“It works like a credit card, where if you don’t use it, you don’t really have much cost,” Sestok says.

That said, using your home as collateral is a risk, so if you spend against your equity, make sure you have a plan to pay that back once you’re over your financial hump.

Additionally, it’s not a bad idea to have a backup credit card, should you really need to cover a cost. Just proceed with caution — the credit card is a last resort, not a first line of defense.

“We certainly don’t want to use that debt if we don’t have to, because the interest rate will be significantly higher,” Sestok says.

Take action immediately if a shutdown occurs

When the most recent shutdown started, some people who were impacted probably didn’t tweak their spending habits right away because they didn’t think it would last long.

“I’m willing to guess that the first three days or so of the shutdown, no one was going into immediate budget mode,” Caro says. “This one was such an important lesson because it lasted longer than anyone expected.”

In the future, if your income depends on the government, let a government shutdown be your signal to pare back ASAP. Suspend your streaming subscriptions, stop eating out, pause extra debt payments and trim your non-essential spending.

“If you’re a habitual Door Dasher for food, you might want to cut that out and start grilling steaks and burgers at your house instead,” Spector says.

Rethink holiday spending habits

This latest government shutdown eased midway through November, and the next funding vote is due by January 30.

Translation: This might not be the year to go big on the holidays. Spend mindfully, and consider talking to friends and family members about going a little smaller on gifts if needed.

“This year, more than ever, I beg people to have a budget,” Caro says.

And within that holiday budget, keep in mind that you’re not just buying gifts — you might also be hosting gatherings, buying and mailing cards, giving end-of-year tips or picking up new decor, among other things.

“I am the first person to admit that every store I go into now, I’m like, ‘Oh, look at that pretty sparkling angel that I don’t need,’” Caro says. “A lot of this is just being aware of your spending and trying to tone it down.”

Plan ahead for bureaucratic delays

If you’ve got business to do with the government — applying for Social Security, Medicare, or a loan from the Small Business Administration, for instance — don’t dilly dally, especially as the date for a potential shutdown looms.

“I would not sit back waiting for things to happen,” Spector says. “You need to have your paperwork in and go through that process.”

That’s because even though basic government functions continued during the shutdown, the processing of new applications for services slowed dramatically. “It’ll hit a roadblock as soon as the government is shut down again,” Spector says.

Bottom line

Preparing for a government shutdown isn’t all that different from preparing for any financial disruption: Have a cash cushion, consider credit options for emergencies, trim unnecessary spending and keep up with routine paperwork. If a shutdown would affect you directly, it’s especially important to get these things squared away.

And if the shutdown ends quickly, you may not need to use any of your contingency plans, Caro says. “But if it doesn’t, you are ahead.”

Kate Ashford, WMS writes for NerdWallet. Email: kashford@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kateashford.

The article How to Prepare for the Next Government Shutdown originally appeared on NerdWallet.

We all know about points, rebounds, assists, etc.

The counting stats get much of the glory in basketball. But how does your team perform when you’re on the floor?

That’s what net rating measures — the points per 100 possessions for your team versus your opponents. The more positive your number, the better your team is playing with you on the court. The more negative? Well, you get it.

Here are Minnesota’s updated individual numbers, with the offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions), defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) and net rating (offense and defense combined) through 20 games of the season, per NBA.com, with the biggest takeaway from each:

Offensive Ratings

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle reacts after scoring against the Phoenix Suns during the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Julius Randle: 121.6

Donte DiVincenzo: 120.8

Anthony Edwards: 120.0

Jaden McDaniels: 118.8

Rudy Gobert: 116.4

Mike Conley: 115.0

Naz Reid: 113.3

Jaylen Clark: 111.2

Terrence Shannon Jr.: 105.8

Rob Dillingham: 102.0

Takeaway: The Wolves offensive efficiency dipped a bit team wide during a stretch of games against more formidable foes. But Minnesota’s offense continues to hum at a high octane when Randle is in full control of the show.

Defensive Ratings

Jaylen Clark: 106.2

Rudy Gobert: 106.6

Rob Dillingham: 109.9

Donte DiVincenzo: 110.4

Jaden McDaniels: 110.7

Julius Randle: 114.0

Naz Reid: 115.0

Mike Conley: 115.1

Anthony Edwards: 116.1

Terrence Shannon Jr.: 122.9

Takeaway: No surprises at the top with Clark and Gobert’s defensive dominance. But what’s noteworthy is the defensive ratings of DiVincenzo and McDaniels continue to improve. McDaniels, an All-Defense performer from two seasons ago, is starting to again have a team-wide impact on that end.

Net Ratings

Donte DiVincenzo: 10.4

Rudy Gobert: 9.8

Jaden McDaniels: 8.1

Julius Randle: 7.6

Jaylen Clark: 5.0

Anthony Edwards: 3.9

Mike Conley: -0.1

Naz Reid: -1.7

Rob Dillingham: -7.9

Terrence Shannon Jr.: -17.2

Takeaway: Minnesota’s best basketball this season now comes with DiVincenzo on the floor, as he’s picked up his defensive communication while hitting shots at a high rate. Four of Minnesota’s five starters sport net ratings north of 7.5 points per 100 possessions.

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By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding stronger on Tuesday as both bond yields and bitcoin stabilize.

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The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, coming off its first loss in six days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 37 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

MongoDB helped lead the market and jumped 24.6% after the database company headquartered in New York delivered stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. United Natural Foods of Providence, Rhode Island, also climbed after reporting a stronger profit than expected, and it rose 8.4%.

They helped offset a 5.6% drop for Signet Jewelers, which gave a forecast for revenue in the holiday shopping season that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The jeweler said it’s expecting “a measured consumer environment.”

The U.S. economy has been holding up overall, but that’s masking sharp divisions underneath the surface. Lower-income households are struggling with inflation that’s still higher than anyone would like. Richer households, meanwhile, are benefiting from a stock market that’s near its all-time high set in late October.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed following jumps the day before. The 10-year yield edged up to 4.10% from 4.09% late Monday, but the two-year yield eased to 3.52% from 3.54%.

Higher yields can drag prices lower for all kinds of investments, and those seen as the most expensive can take the biggest hit.

Bitcoin, which tumbled below $85,000 on Monday, rose back toward $89,000.

Monday’s climb in yields came after the Bank of Japan hinted that it may raise interest rates there soon. But hopes are still high that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate when it meets in Washington next week.

What comes after that for the Fed, though, is uncertain. The Fed has already cut its overnight interest rate twice this year in hopes of shoring up a slowing job market. But lower rates can also fan inflation higher, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi was an outlier and jumped 1.9% for one of the world’s bigger moves. Tech stocks helped lead the way, including rises of 2.6% for Samsung Electronics and 3.7% for chip company SK Hynix.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

We’re all familiar with the motivating cry of “YOLO” right before you do something on the edge of stupidity and exhilaration.

We’ve seen the “TL;DR” (“too long; didn’t read”) section that shares the key takeaways from a long article.

And, we’ve experienced “FOMO” when our friends make plans and we feel compelled to tag along just to make sure we’re not left on the sidelines of an epic experience.

Let’s give a name to our age’s most haunting anxiety: TFWM—The Future We’ll Miss. It’s the recognition that future generations may ask why, when faced with tools to cure, create and connect, we chose to maintain the status quo. Let’s run through a few examples to make this a little clearer:

— AI can detect breast cancer earlier than humans and save millions in treatments and perhaps even thousands of lives. Yet, AI use in medical contexts is often tied up in red tape. #TFWM

— New understanding of the interior design of cells via AI tools has the potential to increase drug development. AI researchers are still struggling to find the computing necessary to run their experiments. #TFWM

— Weather forecasts empowered by AI may soon allow us to detect storms 10 days earlier. A shortage of access to quality data may delay improvements and adoption of these tools. #TFWM

— Firefighters have turned to VR exercises to gain valuable experience fighting fires in novel, extreme contexts. It’s the sort of practice that can make a big difference when the next spark appears. Limited AI readiness among local and state governments, however, stands in the way. #TFWM

I could go on. The point is that in several domains, we’re making the affirmative choice to extend the status quo despite viable alternatives to further human flourishing. Barriers to spreading these AI tools across jurisdictions are eminently solvable. Whether it’s budgetary constraints, regulatory hurdles or public skepticism, all of these hindrances can be removed with enough political will.

So, why am I trying to make #TFWM a “thing”? In other words, why is it important to increase awareness of this perspective? The AI debate is being framed by questions that have distracted us from the practical policy challenges we need to address to bring about a better future.

The first set of distracting questions is some variant of: “Will AI become a sentient overlord and end humanity?” This is a debate about a speculative, distant future that conveniently distracts us from the very real, immediate lives we could be saving today.

The second set of questions is along the lines of “How many jobs will AI destroy?” This is a valid, but defensive and incomplete, question. It frames innovation as a zero-sum threat rather than asking the more productive question: “How can we deploy these tools to make our work more meaningful, creative and valuable?”

Finally, there’s a tranche of questions related to some of the technical aspects of AI, like “Can we even trust what it says?” This concern over AI “hallucinations,” while a real technical challenge, is often used to dismiss the technology’s proven, superhuman accuracy in specific, life-saving domains, such as in medical settings.

A common thread ties these inquiries together. These questions are passive. They ask, “What will AI do to us?”

TFWM flips the script. It demands we ask the active and urgent question: “What will we fail to do with AI?”

The real risk isn’t just that AI might go wrong. The real, measurable risk is that we won’t let it go right. The tragedy is not a robot uprising that makes for good sci-fi but bad public policy; it’s the preventable cancer, the missed storm warning, the failed drug trial. The problem isn’t the technology; it’s our failure of political will and, more pointedly, our failure of legal and regulatory imagination.

This brings us to why TFWM needs to be a “thing.”

FOMO, fear of missing out, for all its triviality, is a powerful motivator. It’s a personal anxiety that causes action. It gets you off the couch, into the Lyft, and into the party.

TFWM must become our new civic anxiety. It’s not the fear of missing a party; it’s the fear of being judged by posterity. It is the deep, haunting dread that our grandchildren will look back at this moment of historic opportunity and ask us, “You had the tools to solve this. Why didn’t you?”

This perspective creates the political will we desperately need. It reframes our entire approach to governance. It shifts the burden of proof from innovators to the status quo. The question is no longer, “Can you prove this new tool is 100% perfect and carries zero risk?” The question becomes, “Can you prove that our current system — with all its human error, bias, cost, and delay — is better than the alternative?”

YOLO, FOMO and TL;DR are shorthand for navigating our personal lives. TFWM is the shorthand for our collective responsibility. The status quo is not a safe, neutral position. It is an active choice, and it has a body count. The future we’ll miss isn’t inevitable. It’s a decision. And right now, we are deciding to miss it every single day we fail to act.

Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow at Texas Law and author of the Appleseed AI substack. He wrote this column The Fulcrum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform covering efforts to fix our governing systems.

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