What’s Ahead for Investors in 2023 and Beyond
Joe Day | January 11, 2023
LOOKING BACK It’s difficult to know what the future will hold without understanding the past. 2022 was a difficult year in the market. An unprecedented, rapid increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, created significant market volatility and negative returns for the year: Consequently, the S&P 500 finished down -19.44% and investors experienced the risk side of the “risk/reward” relationship. What was different about 2022 was that the negative…
Read more
An Underappreciated Employee Benefit: Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP)
Ryan Moriwake | November 3, 2022
If you were to ask someone “What are the best benefits an employer could offer?”, most would respond with perks like health insurance, time off, remote work, and if it’s been a long day… a company sponsored happy hour might be a popular choice. They’d also be remiss if they didn’t mention the valuable 401(k) match, which is a benefit that’s often used synonymously with the phrase “free money”, and…
Read more
Washington’s Long-Term Care Tax Status Updates
Joe Day | July 22, 2022
Thank you to Haley Sanford of New York Life for the status update regarding WA LTC Tax: Earlier this year Governor Inslee signed a bill that postponed the tax by 18 months. WA State did this to try and address a few bipartisan issues such as options for those who are close to retirement and will not pay in for ten years, live in neighboring state but work in WA…
Read more
Economic Hot Buttons
Joe Day | June 14, 2022
Inflation is an economic indicator we discuss heavily with clients during our planning sessions to project future income needs. For years, inflation has been benign, to say the least. Over the last decade, policy makers have been attempting to increase inflation, to ensure it stays close to their preferred target of 2%. Anything lower than their 2% target, risks stagnation in an economy, or worse deflation, which is difficult to…
Read more
How to Think About Your Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
Ryan Moriwake | April 27, 2022
Given the growing popularity of equity compensation plans amongst the country’s largest corporations, offering stock to employees has become a crucial employee benefit. One of the most common forms of equity compensation are known as Restricted Stock Units, or RSUs for short. According to a 2020 survey from Charles Schwab, 5 in 10 millennials said that equity compensation was one of the main reasons why they took their job. Clearly,…
Read more
Will You Receive Social Security?
Ryan Moriwake | December 14, 2021
Each year the Social Security Administration releases their Annual Trustees Report, which provides information about the projected funding levels of the Social Security trust fund. Unless you’re looking for great bedside reading material, you probably haven’t read this year’s report. Here’s the TLDR version – the Social Security trust fund will run out of money by 2033. Society has accepted many things as common knowledge, like swallowed bubble gum taking…
Read more
ESG Investing: Return Tradeoff?
Joe Day | August 17, 2021
Investing trends don’t start out of nowhere. Usually, some event happens and pushes investors towards a certain area of the market. In the case of the last year, the pandemic left a lot of people stuck in their homes with more time on their hands than normal, so many turned to the stock market. The retail investor had a resurgence. The rise of the “meme stock” captured the headlines, but…
Read more
Slavery and It’s Everlasting Effects on Economic and Racial Inequality
Joe Day | August 18, 2020
In February of 1968, Harry Belafonte, host of the Tonight Show on NBC, had Martin Luther King Jr. on as a guest. Below is a clip of Martin Luther King Jr. responding to a question from his host and the following quote: “The economic problem is probably the most serious problem confronting the Negro community, and, I might say, the most serious problem confronting poor people generally”. It’s no secret…
Read more
The Federal Reserve and It’s Impact on the Market Recovery
Joe Day | August 18, 2020
Many people have been caught off guard by the recent market volatility. Most have been surprised to see asset prices increase so quickly after hitting bottom in March. We’ve seen unexpected price movements before, but this was quite extreme given the fact that we are still very much in the middle of a pandemic, with no immediate end in site. What has been driving the recent recovery? Government intervention has…
Read more
Economic Health vs. Public Health
Joe Day | August 18, 2020
A debate has been raging in this country, regarding the economic toll and public health toll that this pandemic has caused. The arguments range from concerns about an economic depression caused by mandatory government shutdowns, to concerns about our health care system being overwhelmed by sick patients and an untold number of unnecessary deaths occurring due to an unchecked COVID-19 virus. We believe it is a false narrative to say…
Read more
