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.

US Treasury Series I Savings Bonds (“I Bonds”) currently offer an attractive opportunity for savers to take advantage of nearly risk-free return yields of more than 7%. If there is a silver lining in the current inflation cloud it is that I Bonds yields also rise with inflation, which has led to a recent surge in their popularity from relative obscurity. This presents an opportunity to invest your extra cash at a great yield, but you need to act by April 28 to lock in at the great rate.