SALLIE'S OPINION

How SVB Happened — And What It Means For You

If you’re an Ellevest client, you received an email over the weekend from me about the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), including my personal insights into what’s happening — since I’ve lived and managed through a number of bank runs — and what it means for you. (And just for clarity: In looking for causes, we do not subscribe to the Wall Street Journal’s POV that “the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.” SMH.)

You can read my letter in full at the button below.

We know that you — and the wider Ellevest community — will want to keep an eye on the markets in the days and weeks ahead. (That’s just who you are.) So you can always find all of our updates, explainers, and ongoing analysis of the financial climate — and how it’ll affect your own wealth-building journey — here on the Ellevest Magazine. (There’s even a drop-down menu where you can find the relevant information based on what you need in the moment.)

Also, lest it get completely forgotten: It’s Equal Pay Day today, a day we love to hate. The Ellevest team has put together some of our most useful information on the topic, from where the pay gap stands now to how you can use that information as you navigate your own career.

Thank you, as always, for being a part of this essential community.

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Links to leverage

• As recently as last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell was saying the Fed was prepared to hike interest rates yet again following their meeting next week. But the collapse of SVB has completely upended those intentions — and now it’s unclear what they’ll decide to do.
• Millennials — you know, the generation whose adult lives have been marked by not one but two economic crises thus far — are making sure their kids are financially literate.
• A new paper hypothesizes that the boom in remote work over the past few years is making it a lot easier for couples to have kids. (Uh, yeah.)
• Even though the wage gap for single women has historically been slightly better than it is for women overall (due to the mommy tax, among other things), data shows that it may be getting worse for them.
• Remember that old chestnut about how more money = more happiness, until you hit about $75,000 in income? New research suggests it’s not true: More money seems to make almost everyone happier — no $75k threshold required.