While a full-blown banking crisis is not likely, the recent Silicon Valley Bank failure provides a great opportunity to review your cash management strategy.

At the end of December Congress passed a bill (signed by President Biden) authorizing roughly $1.7 trillion in new Federal spending. Included was a long-awaited update to retirement savings incentives known as the SECURE Act 2.0, a follow-up to the original Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019.

2022 has so far been a difficult year in the markets. You are no doubt familiar with the list of reasons contributing to the malaise: inflation, China, COVID lockdowns, Russia-Ukraine War, the Fed, tech stocks, crypto, mid-term elections, and certainly others.

On Wednesday (9/21) the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously to lift their benchmark Fed Funds rate another 75bps (0.75%), bringing it into a new target range of 3.00-3.25%, a level last seen in 2008. This rate move was anticipated by most investors. What wasn’t anticipated as much was the future direction of Fed Funds rate policy that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell described in the post-meeting news conference.

It’s official – the S&P 500 stock index is in bear market territory. A bear market is defined as a 20% drop “from most recent peak to trough.” The peak was January 3rd. The 20% trough was reached last Monday, June 13th, thus triggering what we’ve felt all along – that it’s been a tough go for investors in 2022.

When markets drop, anxiety increases. It’s normal human behavior. Add in the backdrop of war, a humanitarian crisis, mass shootings, and economic worries, and it’s natural to wonder what the impact on investment performance will be. Should we be doing something different with our investment dollars?