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Let’s say you log into your bank account, and zap: You see that your home insurance or tuition has just taken a big chunk off your balance. It’s a legitimate bill, but you’ve been distracted by 10,000 other things and forgot that you’d put it on autopay. Now you’ll have to scramble to make sure you’ve got enough money to cover your other expenses.

Some bills — property taxes, college tuition, car or home insurance, HOA dues, club fees, or vehicle registrations — are more likely to wreak havoc on your finances because you may only pay them once or twice a year (or at least on a less-than-monthly basis.) For gig and freelance workers, it’s often a big income tax bill that catches you off guard.

But what if you took the automatic concept from auto-pay and used it to auto-save as well? Just as you might already be putting 10% or 20% of every paycheck straight into your 401(k) or IRA, you can plan in advance, funnelling set amounts of your income into accounts designated for other specific expenses. Smaller chunks can make big bills feel a lot more manageable.

Chris Colson, a payments expert at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, calls it good old-fashioned earmarking, just with a digital twist.

“As programmable payments become more common, an old-school budgeting idea is making a comeback: earmarking,” Colson wrote in a recent blog post. “It’s a simple concept, but when combined with automation, it could be the budgeting upgrade many people and businesses have been waiting for.”

(Pro tip: Even though monthly payments can be an option for things like car insurance or propane, consider the tradeoffs if you give up pay-in-full discounts.)

So what would you need to do? The key is to make technology do as much of the work as possible — and keep you disciplined.

•   Make your list: It’s easy to forget all the bills you have, especially if it’s been 11 months. Comb back through your credit card and bank transactions to make a list of the less-frequent but significant bills you want to save up for.

•   Do the math: For each bill on your list, divide the amount by the number of months before it’s due again. That’s how much you’ll need to set aside each month. For example, to pay your boat’s annual $1,200 marina slip fee, you’d need to set aside $100 per month. (You can also divide your bill by 52 to get a weekly amount.) And if you know your bill is likely to go up, maybe add in an extra month’s worth.

•   Set up the rules: Use your bank or budgeting app to separate your paycheck and other income into buckets allocated for each bill. Set up recurring transfers so the fixed dollar amounts you determined in the previous step are automatically deducted each week or month. (With SoFi Savings Vaults, you can set up as many as 20 different customized buckets – and earn a competitive interest rate.)

•   Consider this method for more than bills: You can use this savings approach for any large, infrequent expenses. Holiday gifts, back-to-school shopping, or anniversary trips. (Think of it as the envelope or cash-stuffing method, but in automated, digital form.)

Related Reading

•  Automatic Savings Plan: What it Means, How it Works, Example (Investopedia)

•  5 Ways To Grow Your Savings With Automatic Transfers (Bankrate)

•  AI Budgeting Tools: Personal Finance Management (SoFi)

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OTM20251003SW

Political Pressure

It took a while, but the moment many investors were waiting for finally arrived. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since December, aiming to guard against the risk of further deterioration in the labor market.

The Fed cut its benchmark 25 basis points as political pressure to lower borrowing costs posed the biggest test of the Fed’s independence since the 1970s: First, President Trump attempted to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook, triggering a legal battle that’s still going on. Then Stephen Miran, who had advised the president as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, was confirmed to the Board of Governors and pushed for a more aggressive 50 basis point rate cut. (He also indicated he preferred to lower the rate by an additional 125 basis points through the end of the year — 50 basis points more than any other Fed official.)

While Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s focus on maximum employment and price stability has kept the central bank grounded throughout the turmoil, investors have taken note of the political clouds.

Of course, there isn’t any one definitive way to measure the impact of political risk on asset prices, but there are hints. For instance, though speculative positioning in dollar futures (DXY) has gotten more bearish throughout the year, there was a decisive increase in bearishness over the summer and in the lead up to the meeting.

Speculative US Dollar Future Positioning

A New Goldilocks?

Political concerns notwithstanding, the first rate cut in nearly a year was a powerful catalyst for financial markets, igniting a broad-based rally across multiple asset classes. Investors have embraced a “bad news is good news” dynamic, where weakening labor data was viewed as a positive for asset prices because it solidifies the case for further rate cuts. At least for now, other drivers of further rate cuts could include declining consumer demand or shrinking profit margins.

One of the most significant developments was the breakout in small-capitalization stocks. The Russell 2000 index surged to a new all-time high for the first time since November 2021 amid renewed investor confidence in the more cyclical parts of the U.S. economy. (Smaller companies tend to be seen as more sensitive to borrowing costs.)

Russell 2000

Sectors levered to the AI trade also had another strong month, and gold prices climbed to new record highs, surpassing $3,800/oz. While both are thought to benefit from lower interest rates, the month’s political turmoil also likely boosted the precious metal’s appeal as a safe-haven hedge against institutional instability and inflation.

Market Recap

Asset Returns

September 2025 Sector Total Returns

Macro

•  The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 4%-4.25%.

•  In their Summary of Economic Projections, Fed officials expected higher GDP growth, lower unemployment, and higher inflation.

•  Against expectations for an increase of 75k jobs in August, only 22k were added. Additionally, the prior two months were revised down by 12k.

•  After the prior month’s surge, August PPI came in below expectations at -0.1% m/m. On the other hand, CPI came in a touch above estimates at 0.4% m/m.

•  Second quarter GDP growth was revised up from 3.3% to 3.8%, driven by higher than initially reported consumer spending.

•  The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 55.1 in September, below consensus of 62.0, amid worsening perceptions of the job market and their personal financial situation.

•  New home sales surged to an annualized 800k, significantly above consensus for 650k and the most since January 2022.

•  Buoyed by lower interest rates, ETF flows, and ongoing central bank purchases, gold rose 11.9% to finish the month at an all-time high of $3,859. That was its best month since August 2011.

Equities

•  Emerging market stocks rose 7.2%, powered by strong tech sector gains from Taiwan, South Korea, and China.

•  The Magnificent Seven and a basket of AI-sensitive stocks also had a strong month, with gaining 9.3% and 10.2%, respectively.

•  Cyclical stocks beat defensives by 1.1 percentage points, their fifth straight month of outperformance.

Fixed Income

•  Treasurys and Investment Grade corporate bonds have had three straight quarters of positive returns, the first such streak since 2020.

•  Treasury volatility (i.e. the MOVE Index) continued its multi-month declines, now at its lowest level since early January 2022.

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Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Market returns will fluctuate, and current performance may be lower or higher than the standardized performance data quoted.

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