Every September, Washington holds a fire sale on your money. Agencies with cash left rush to sign contracts and cut grant checks before Sept. 30, because they fear leftover funds will invite future budget cuts. Think Black Friday with a federal seal.

That rush costs real money. A study in the American Economic Review found spending in the last week of the fiscal year runs 4.9 times higher than the weekly average for the rest of the year, and year-end information technology projects earned substantially lower quality ratings. A Mercatus Center analysis found 16.9% of executive branch contract spending from 2003 to 2013 landed in September, double the 8.3% an even pace would produce. In my world of family wealth, unspent capital is called dry powder, and nobody apologizes for holding it. In Washington, it’s called a budget cut.