When the Fed Raises Rates: What Higher Interest Rates Mean for Your Money

Interest rates changed again—and this time, they moved higher.

When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, the immediate headlines tend to focus on markets and economics. But the effects eventually make their way into everyday financial decisions: what you earn on cash, what you pay to borrow, how much a new home or car costs to finance, and even how businesses decide what to charge and where to invest.

In other words, a rate hike isn't just a Wall Street story. It can be a good reason to review your own financial strategy.

Why Does the Fed Raise Interest Rates?

One of the Federal Reserve's primary tools for fighting inflation is interest-rate policy. When the economy is running too hot and prices are rising faster than policymakers would like, higher rates are intended to reduce demand.

The basic idea is relatively straightforward: make borrowing more expensive and saving more attractive.

Higher financing costs can discourage households from taking on additional debt or making large financed purchases. Businesses face higher borrowing costs as well, which can affect expansion, hiring, investment, and pricing decisions.

Over time, slower demand can make it more difficult for companies to continuously raise prices—helping bring inflation closer to the Fed's longer-term objective.

For consumers, however, the more important question may be: What should you do differently?

1. Take Another Look at Variable-Rate Debt

When rates rise, variable-rate debt deserves attention.

Credit cards, certain home equity lines of credit, and other floating-rate loans can become more expensive as interest rates increase. Even households with strong incomes can find themselves paying significant interest simply because debt that once seemed manageable has become increasingly costly.

That doesn't necessarily mean every dollar of debt should immediately be eliminated. Liquidity needs, taxes, investment opportunities, and the terms of the debt all matter.

But it may be a particularly good time to inventory what you owe and ask:

• Which debts have variable interest rates?

• What interest rate am I currently paying?

• Has that rate increased materially?

• Do I have excess cash that could reasonably be used to reduce expensive debt?

• Does my current payoff strategy still make sense?

For high-income households especially, cash flow can sometimes disguise inefficient debt. A payment may be affordable without necessarily being financially attractive.

2. Make Sure Your Cash Is Actually Working for You

There is another side to higher rates: savers may benefit.

Savings accounts, money-market funds, CDs, and other short-term instruments can offer more attractive yields when interest rates are elevated. That makes this an appropriate time to review where your emergency reserves and other short-term cash are sitting.

However, a better yield shouldn't automatically become a reason to accumulate excessive cash.

Your emergency fund still has a job: providing liquidity when something unexpected happens. Money intended for a home purchase next year has a different job. Money earmarked for retirement several decades from now has another job entirely.

The goal isn't simply to chase the highest available interest rate. It's to make sure each dollar is positioned appropriately for when you'll need it and what you need it to accomplish.

3. Be More Intentional About Spending

Perhaps the most relatable interpretation of restrictive monetary policy is also the simplest: policymakers are intentionally trying to make spending a little less appealing.

That doesn't mean eliminating restaurants, travel, entertainment, or everything else that makes life enjoyable. A financial plan that requires perpetual deprivation probably isn't a particularly sustainable one.

But periods of higher rates and persistent inflation can provide a useful opportunity to examine spending that has gradually become automatic.

Subscriptions accumulate. Lifestyle expenses creep higher. Convenience becomes routine. Raises and bonuses get absorbed into monthly spending without much thought.

A little intentionality can go a long way.

Maybe autumn really is a good time to trade a few happy hours for book clubs, dinners out for dinners at home, or another expensive weekend away for a cozy blanket, a candle, and an evening with nowhere to be.

The objective isn't austerity. It's making sure you're spending deliberately rather than simply spending because you can.

4. Don't Let Interest Rates Dictate Your Entire Investment Strategy

Higher rates can create opportunities in cash and fixed income, but they shouldn't necessarily cause long-term investors to abandon their broader investment plans.

For someone pursuing financial independence or an early retirement, this distinction can be especially important.

A competitive yield on cash may feel attractive today, particularly because it comes with considerably less volatility than equities. But today's interest rate is not guaranteed indefinitely—and long-term financial goals still require a strategy designed around decades rather than the next Federal Reserve meeting.

Instead of asking, "Where can I get the highest yield right now?" consider asking:

"What does this money need to accomplish, and when will I need it?"

That question helps separate emergency savings from near-term goals, intermediate-term investments, and assets intended to fund retirement decades into the future.

Higher Rates Can Be a Financial Planning Prompt

Federal Reserve decisions are important, but your financial plan shouldn't need to be reinvented every time policymakers meet.

Instead, changing rates can serve as a prompt to review the pieces of your financial life most directly affected by them: debt, cash reserves, upcoming purchases, investment allocation, and monthly spending.

If borrowing has become more expensive, it may be time to prioritize certain debts. If cash yields have improved, make sure your reserves are positioned appropriately. If inflation has pushed lifestyle expenses higher, revisit your cash-flow assumptions. And if attractive short-term yields are tempting you away from long-term investments, return to the purpose behind each account.

Sometimes the best response to economic uncertainty isn't making a dramatic financial move.

It's making a few thoughtful ones.

And if that happens to include spending a couple more autumn evenings at home with a good book, a blanket, and a candle, monetary policy could have worse side effects.

Dollar-Cost Averaging During Market Volatility: Why Not To Time the Market

Market volatility has a way of making every investment decision feel more urgent.

When markets move sharply from one day to the next, investors naturally start wondering whether they should wait. Maybe stocks will fall further. Maybe interest rates will change. Maybe the economic outlook will improve. Maybe there will be a clearer opportunity to invest a few weeks or months from now.

The challenge is that volatility rarely provides that clarity in real time.

Periods of uncertainty can create opportunities, but taking advantage of them doesn't necessarily require predicting exactly where the market will go next. For long-term investors, dollar-cost averaging can offer a disciplined alternative to trying to time every market move.

What Is Dollar-Cost Averaging?

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is the practice of investing a predetermined amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of what the market is doing.

Anyone contributing to a 401(k) with every paycheck is already familiar with the concept. Investments continue when markets are rising, falling, or somewhere in between.

That can become particularly useful during periods of volatility.

When prices decline, the same contribution purchases more shares. When prices rise, it purchases fewer. Rather than requiring an investor to determine whether the market has reached a bottom, the strategy creates a systematic way to continue participating.

Volatility Can Make Market Timing Especially Tempting

When markets are relatively calm, staying invested can feel easy. Volatility changes the psychology.

A sharp decline can make waiting seem prudent. A quick recovery can make investors worry they've already missed their opportunity. Another decline may reinforce the idea that waiting was the correct choice.

Suddenly, investment decisions are being driven by short-term market movements rather than long-term financial goals.

This is one of the biggest challenges with market timing: you don't have to make one correct prediction. You have to make a series of them.

You need to know when to wait, when prices have fallen far enough, and when to put the money back to work. And some of the strongest market recoveries can begin while economic headlines still look discouraging.

What Happens When You Wait for the Bottom?

Consider an investor with $100,000 in cash intended for long-term investment.

Markets have become volatile, so the investor decides to wait for a better entry point.

Stocks decline 5%. They wait for 10%.

Markets fall further, but headlines become increasingly negative. Now the investor wonders whether an even larger decline is coming.

Then the market suddenly rebounds.

Should they invest now—or wait for another pullback?

This cycle can repeat itself surprisingly quickly. The pursuit of the perfect entry point can ultimately become a reason to remain on the sidelines.

Dollar-cost averaging changes the decision. Instead of trying to identify the bottom, an investor might establish a schedule for gradually putting that $100,000 to work over a predetermined period.

Volatility hasn't disappeared. The need to correctly predict it has.

Volatility Can Also Create Opportunity

Market volatility isn't inherently good or bad. It simply means prices are moving—and those movements can create opportunities.

For investors regularly contributing to their portfolios, lower prices allow new contributions to purchase more shares. For existing portfolios, volatility may create opportunities to rebalance, address concentrated positions, harvest tax losses, or deploy excess cash according to an established investment plan.

This is where having a strategy before volatility arrives becomes especially important.

Decisions made during calm markets can be based on goals, risk tolerance, liquidity needs and time horizon. Decisions made in the middle of a sharp market decline have to compete with fear, headlines and the natural temptation to predict what happens tomorrow.

Dollar-Cost Averaging Doesn't Mean Ignoring the Market

A systematic investment strategy shouldn't be confused with blindly investing regardless of circumstances.

Your emergency reserves still need to be appropriate. Money needed for an upcoming home purchase, tax payment, tuition expense or other short-term obligation may not belong in a volatile investment portfolio at all.

Likewise, changes in interest rates, valuations and economic conditions can affect how a portfolio should be positioned.

The distinction is between responding strategically to changing conditions and reacting emotionally to short-term price movements.

As Investopedia's discussion of dollar-cost averaging versus market timing highlights, DCA can help remove some of the emotion from investing during periods of uncertainty. Market timing, meanwhile, requires investors to correctly anticipate movements that are notoriously difficult to predict.

Lump Sum vs. Dollar-Cost Averaging

There is an important caveat: dollar-cost averaging isn't automatically the best choice in every situation.

If an investor already has a large amount of cash earmarked for long-term investment, investing it immediately gives that money more time in the market. If markets rise during the period in which the investor is gradually investing, a lump-sum investment can produce a better result.

Dollar-cost averaging can therefore represent a tradeoff.

An investor may sacrifice some potential upside in exchange for reducing the risk—and emotional difficulty—of investing a large amount immediately before a significant market decline.

The appropriate approach depends on the investor, the source of the money, the time horizon and the broader financial plan.

Build a Strategy for Changing Conditions

Market volatility is unavoidable. Predicting exactly when it will begin or end is another matter entirely.

That's why a well-constructed financial plan should be built more like an all-wheel-drive vehicle than a strategy designed for one particular set of road conditions.

Sometimes markets will be smooth. Other times investors will encounter inflation concerns, changing interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, recessions, corrections and unexpected events.

The goal isn't to predict every obstacle before it appears. It's to have a strategy capable of navigating different environments.

For some investors, dollar-cost averaging can be part of that approach. It provides a framework for continuing to invest when volatility makes doing so emotionally difficult—and allows market declines to become part of the investment process rather than automatically becoming a reason to abandon it.

Ultimately, instead of asking:

“Where will the market go next?”

Consider asking:

“Is my financial strategy prepared if volatility continues?”

That's a question a thoughtful financial plan can actually answer.

Disclosure: Dollar-cost averaging does not assure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Investors should consider their financial ability to continue investing through periods of fluctuating prices. This material is provided for educational purposes and should not be construed as individualized investment advice.

What if Interest Rates Stay Higher for Longer?

Interest rates are once again commanding attention. Consumers, investors, homeowners, and prospective buyers are watching the Federal Reserve closely, wondering when—or whether—meaningfully lower rates will arrive.

It’s an understandable question. Interest rates influence everything from mortgages and business loans to savings accounts and bond yields. When borrowing costs are elevated, waiting for cheaper money can seem like the prudent choice.

But there may be a more useful question to ask:

What if interest rates stay higher for longer?

More importantly, does your financial strategy still work if they do?

Your Financial Plan Shouldn't Depend on Predicting the Fed

Interest-rate forecasts change frequently because the economic information behind them changes, too. Inflation, employment, economic growth, consumer spending, and other factors can all influence monetary policy.

That makes building a financial strategy around the timing of future rate cuts difficult.

Rather than trying to predict exactly when rates will move, consider whether your financial plan works under multiple scenarios. What happens if rates decline quickly? What if they fall gradually? And what if borrowing costs remain elevated longer than expected?

A resilient financial plan should not require one particular economic forecast to be correct.

Higher Rates Can Be Good News for Savers

One clear beneficiary of higher interest rates has been cash.

High-yield savings accounts, money-market funds, CDs, and other cash alternatives have offered yields that would have been difficult to find during the ultra-low-rate environment of years past.

That can make holding additional cash tempting. But the interest rate you're earning shouldn't determine how large your emergency fund needs to be.

Emergency savings have a specific job: providing readily accessible money for unexpected expenses, temporary income disruptions, or known near-term needs. The appropriate amount depends on factors such as household expenses, job stability, insurance coverage, upcoming purchases, and other financial obligations.

An attractive yield doesn't necessarily change that calculation.

Once sufficient reserves have been established, the question becomes whether additional cash is serving a purpose—or whether money intended for longer-term goals could be better positioned elsewhere.

Borrowing Requires a Different Calculation

The other side of higher interest rates is considerably less enjoyable: borrowing becomes more expensive.

Mortgage rates can affect the affordability of a home. Variable-rate loans and lines of credit may require larger payments. Financing a business, renovation, vehicle, or investment property can also look considerably different when the cost of capital increases.

For some people, postponing a large purchase may make sense.

For others, continually waiting for rates to fall can create a different kind of opportunity cost.

Instead of asking only, "When will rates come down?", consider asking:

"Does this decision make financial sense at today's rate?"

If it does, lower rates in the future may eventually create refinancing opportunities. If it doesn't, the decision may need to change regardless of what the Federal Reserve does next.

Don't Forget About the Opportunities Higher Rates Can Create

Higher interest rates aren't universally negative.

One area worth revisiting is fixed income.

For years, extremely low yields made it difficult for bonds to provide meaningful income. A higher-rate environment can create opportunities across Treasuries, investment-grade bonds, municipal bonds, CDs, and other income-oriented investments.

That doesn't mean investors should simply purchase whichever bond or CD offers the highest advertised yield. Maturity, credit quality, taxes, liquidity, interest-rate sensitivity, and the purpose of the investment all matter.

But it does mean investors may have more choices when building the defensive and income-producing portions of a portfolio.

Retirees looking for income may see one set of opportunities, while younger investors accumulating wealth may approach the same environment differently.

Are You Waiting for Interest Rates to Make a Decision for You?

This may ultimately be the most important question.

Perhaps you've been waiting for mortgage rates to decline before purchasing a home. Maybe excess cash remains on the sidelines because you're unsure where markets or rates are headed. Perhaps you're delaying a portfolio change, business investment, debt strategy, or another major financial decision.

Sometimes waiting is the right strategy.

But waiting indefinitely for the "perfect" interest rate requires making a prediction about something outside of your control.

Financial planning is less about knowing exactly what the Federal Reserve will do next and more about creating a strategy capable of adapting when conditions change.

Higher rates create winners and losers. They can reward savers while increasing costs for borrowers. They can make certain purchases more difficult while creating opportunities for investors seeking income.

The important question isn't simply whether rates will rise or fall next.

It's whether your financial strategy works either way.

If you've been postponing an important financial decision because you're waiting for interest rates to change, it may be a good time to revisit the numbers and determine whether your strategy still aligns with your goals.

Elswick Investments provides comprehensive financial planning and private wealth management designed around each client's individual priorities, circumstances, and long-term objectives.

Does Your Emergency Fund Need a Raise?

An emergency fund is rarely the most exciting part of a financial plan. There’s no market return to watch, no investment strategy to debate, and ideally, you won’t need to touch it very often.

But when an unexpected expense arrives, your emergency savings can quickly become one of the most valuable parts of your financial life.

With inflation changing household expenses, interest rates affecting savings yields, and major costs like housing, insurance, healthcare, and transportation continuing to command attention, 2026 may be a particularly good time to revisit a simple question:

Does your emergency fund need a raise?

How Much Should You Have in an Emergency Fund?

A common rule of thumb is to maintain approximately three to six months of essential expenses in readily accessible savings. That can be a useful starting point, but financial planning is rarely one-size-fits-all.

Someone with two stable household incomes, relatively low fixed expenses, and significant non-retirement assets may have very different cash needs than a single-income household, a business owner, a recently retired individual, or someone whose compensation varies throughout the year.

Instead of focusing exclusively on a rule of thumb, consider what your emergency fund actually needs to accomplish.

If your income unexpectedly stopped tomorrow, how much would you need to maintain your household while determining your next step?

Inflation Can Quietly Shrink Your Financial Cushion

Even if the dollar balance of your emergency fund hasn't changed, its purchasing power may have.

Suppose you established your emergency savings several years ago based on what it cost to cover your mortgage or rent, groceries, utilities, insurance, transportation, and other necessities at the time. If those expenses have increased but your emergency fund hasn't, you effectively have fewer months of protection today.

That's one reason an emergency fund shouldn't necessarily be viewed as a savings goal you complete once and forget.

As the cost of your life changes, the amount of cash required to protect it can change, too.

Your Life May Have Changed, Too

Inflation isn't the only reason to reconsider how much emergency savings you need.

Think about what has changed since you originally established your cash reserve. Perhaps you've purchased a home, welcomed a child, changed careers, started a business, taken on additional debt, increased your monthly spending, or become responsible for supporting another family member.

Homeownership provides a particularly easy example. A renter may primarily need to prepare for an income interruption or unexpected personal expense. A homeowner may also suddenly face a major HVAC replacement, roof repair, plumbing problem, appliance failure, or insurance deductible.

Your emergency fund should reflect the financial responsibilities you have today, rather than the responsibilities you had when you originally set the account up.

What Is an Emergency Fund Actually For?

Emergency savings are designed for expenses that are both important and difficult to predict.

Common reasons households may need to tap their savings include:

• Unexpected car repairs

• Home repairs and maintenance

• Medical expenses

• Temporary unemployment or loss of income

• Unexpected family expenses

• Insurance deductibles

• Essential expenses during a financial transition

The purpose isn't to anticipate every possible emergency. It's to create enough financial flexibility that an unexpected event doesn't immediately require you to sell investments, accumulate high-interest debt, or dramatically disrupt the rest of your financial plan.

That flexibility has value even when the money itself isn't being used.

Where Should You Keep Your Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund has a different job than a long-term investment portfolio.

Its primary responsibilities are liquidity, accessibility, and stability.

Depending on your circumstances, that could mean keeping emergency savings in a high-yield savings account, money market account, or another appropriate cash-equivalent vehicle.

Interest rates matter here. When cash yields are attractive, it's worth reviewing whether idle savings are earning a competitive rate. When interest rates begin falling, however, the answer generally isn't to abandon emergency savings in pursuit of higher returns.

The emergency fund isn't designed to maximize growth. It's designed to be available when you need it.

Don't Confuse Emergency Savings With Other Cash Goals

Another important distinction is separating true emergency savings from money earmarked for expenses you already know are coming.

A vacation next summer isn't an emergency. Neither is an upcoming property-tax bill, planned home renovation, new vehicle purchase, or annual insurance premium.

Those expenses can be addressed through separate short-term savings strategies.

Keeping them separate makes it easier to understand how much of your cash is actually available if something genuinely unexpected occurs.

A Better Question Than "Do I Have an Emergency Fund?"

For many established investors and higher-income households, the answer to that question is already yes.

The more useful question may be:

Is my emergency fund still appropriately sized for my life?

Review your current essential monthly expenses and compare them with the amount of readily accessible cash you've designated for emergencies. Then consider the risks specific to your household.

How secure is your income? How many people depend on it? Do you own property? Are there large insurance deductibles to consider? Do you have variable compensation? Are you approaching retirement or already drawing from your portfolio?

The appropriate answer can look different for every household.

Give Your Emergency Fund an Annual Review

Investment portfolios receive regular attention. Retirement projections are updated. Insurance policies and estate plans are periodically reviewed.

Emergency savings deserve a place in that process as well.

At least annually—and after major life events—revisit your monthly expenses, financial obligations, income stability, and available cash reserves. You may discover that you're holding more cash than necessary. Or you may realize that a reserve established several years ago hasn't kept pace with the life you're living today.

Either conclusion can be valuable.

Your emergency fund doesn't have to be exciting to be important. Its job is to provide stability when life becomes unpredictable.

So, when was the last time you gave your emergency fund a raise?

If you're unsure how much cash makes sense alongside your investments, retirement strategy, and other financial priorities, a comprehensive financial plan can help determine an appropriate balance for your individual circumstances.

How Much Cash Is Too Much?

Cash has become a surprisingly important part of financial planning conversations over the last several years. Following the Great Recession and suddenness of the pandemic, persistent inflation prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively, and savers suddenly found themselves earning yields on cash that had been difficult to find for years. Money market funds, high-yield savings accounts, CDs and other cash equivalents became increasingly attractive places to keep money.

But market conditions change—and financial plans should evolve with them.

As interest rates move lower, the return available on cash may decline as well. At the same time, inflation can continue to erode purchasing power. For investors who accumulated significant cash balances while yields were higher, this creates an important question: How much cash should you actually keep, and when does holding too much cash become a risk of its own?

Cash Is an Important Part of a Financial Plan

Holding cash isn't inherently good or bad. What matters is the purpose that money serves.

An emergency fund is one of the most obvious reasons to maintain cash reserves. Unexpected home repairs, medical expenses, employment changes and other surprises can happen at any time. Money earmarked for expenses in the relatively near future may also belong somewhere accessible rather than being exposed to unnecessary market volatility.

For retirees, cash can serve another important role. Having funds available for upcoming spending needs may reduce the need to sell investments at an inconvenient time during a market downturn. For professionals in their peak earning years, cash can provide flexibility for upcoming purchases, career transitions, real estate decisions or other major financial goals.

Liquidity has value. The goal isn't to eliminate cash from a portfolio. It's to determine how much liquidity is appropriate for your particular circumstances.

The Hidden Cost of Holding Too Much Cash

The challenge begins when cash accumulates without a specific purpose.

For several years, higher interest rates made it easier to overlook this issue because savers could earn relatively attractive yields without accepting much investment risk. As rates decline, however, cash yields can decline with them.

Inflation adds another consideration.

Imagine your cash savings are earning 2.5% annually while inflation is running at 3.4%. Even though your account balance is earning interest, the purchasing power of that money is effectively declining by approximately 0.9% before considering other factors such as taxes.

Over one year, that difference may not feel particularly significant. Over longer periods and larger balances, however, the cumulative impact can become much more meaningful.

This is one reason investors should distinguish between money that needs to remain liquid and money that is simply sitting in cash.

Cash Can Feel Safe While Still Carrying Risk

When people think about investment risk, they often think first about stock market volatility. Cash generally doesn't experience those daily price swings, which can make it feel substantially safer.

But volatility isn't the only financial risk.

There is also purchasing-power risk: the possibility that inflation causes your money to buy less in the future. There is opportunity cost: money held in cash for long periods may miss opportunities for growth elsewhere. And there is longevity risk, particularly for retirees who may need their assets to support decades of future spending.

The appropriate balance depends on what the money is intended to accomplish.

Cash needed next year and money intended to fund a goal 15 years from now generally shouldn't be treated the same way. A financial plan can help assign different jobs to different portions of your assets rather than expecting one type of account or investment to accomplish everything.

What Can You Do With Excess Cash?

Investing excess cash doesn't necessarily mean moving it all into stocks.

Depending on an investor's objectives, risk tolerance, tax situation and timeline, there may be a range of possibilities to consider. Bonds and other fixed-income investments may play a role for some investors. A diversified investment portfolio may make sense for money with a longer time horizon. Taxable brokerage accounts can also provide access to investments without the age-related withdrawal rules commonly associated with retirement accounts.

That last point is particularly important. There is sometimes a misconception that investing means putting additional money into a 401(k) or IRA and accepting restrictions on when it can be accessed. Retirement accounts are valuable planning tools, but they aren't the only way to invest.

For professionals in their highest earning years, taxable investments can potentially complement retirement savings while creating greater flexibility for goals before retirement. For recently retired investors, coordinating cash, fixed income and longer-term investments can help create a strategy designed around both current spending and future needs.

How Much Cash Should You Keep?

There isn't one cash target that works for everyone.

Rules of thumb about keeping several months of expenses in an emergency fund can provide a starting point, but financial planning becomes more nuanced as wealth and financial responsibilities increase. Someone approaching retirement may have very different liquidity needs from a professional with stable income and decades until retirement.

Rather than focusing exclusively on a specific dollar amount, consider what your cash is intended to fund. How much is your emergency reserve? Are there major purchases or expenses expected over the next few years? How stable is your income? If you're retired, where will upcoming distributions come from? And once those needs are accounted for, how much cash remains without a defined purpose?

That final amount is often where a deeper conversation becomes worthwhile.

Give Every Dollar a Purpose

Cash serves an important role in nearly every financial plan. The objective isn't to chase the highest possible return on every dollar or invest money that needs to remain readily available.

Instead, the goal is intentionality.

As interest rates and inflation change, a cash strategy that made sense a few years ago may no longer be the best fit today. Periodically reviewing your savings, investment accounts and upcoming financial needs can help determine whether your money is positioned appropriately for both the life you're living now and the goals you're working toward.

If you've accumulated a larger cash balance, are approaching retirement, recently retired, or simply haven't reviewed how much you're holding in savings, this may be a good time to revisit the conversation. A comprehensive financial plan can help determine how much cash you truly need, where that cash should be held, and whether excess savings could be put to work more effectively elsewhere.