HarborLight Insights

We’re here to keep you up to date on topics and issues that impact you and your finances. We write about topics based on what we are seeing and reading as well as questions that our clients ask us.

2023 Economic Outlook

Given the past year’s volatility, we thought it might be helpful to post some insights on what happened over the course of 2022 and a look ahead at what to pay attention to in 2023.
latest posts
September 30, 2021

Equity Compensation and Its Tax Ramifications

Equity compensation is used by many types of employers. Most startups use equity compensation to reduce their burn rate while keeping their compensation competitive. As a company matures and cash compensation becomes less problematic, many companies continue to offer equity compensation to align their employees’ interests with those of the company.

Read This Article >
September 8, 2021

What are Restricted Stock Units and How Are They Taxed?

We continue to talk to more people who are compensated by their employers with Restricted Stock Units. This form of compensation allows companies to incentivize their employees by granting them ownership in the firm. This is known as equity compensation, which is provided alongside base salary, bonuses, and other benefits.

Read This Article >
July 7, 2021

The Growing Popularity of ESG Investing

As we continue to move out of the pandemic and closer to our new sense of normal life, there is growing concern about the condition of the environment, and an increased interest in taking purposeful action to reverse man-made climate change. All generations of consumers are gravitating towards businesses that make environmentally conscious choices, and this trend is exaggerated in younger folks.

Read This Article >
June 29, 2020

Summer 2020 Market Update

Since late March, the stock market has recovered almost all the losses for the year. It is more impressive than other recoveries we have seen in recent years, because when you look at economic data, there is really no reason for such a strong rally. It is true that the outlook is better than it was in March, but the level of uncertainty is still quite high.

Read This Article >
September 23, 2019

The Rising Cost of Getting Ahead

It’s the first day of fall, and even though our family lives in California my mind still wanders to Burlington, Vermont at this time of year. For four incredible years I was a student at the University of Vermont studying finance. I learned a lot during those years, but it wasn’t until I had kids of my own that I really put in the time to wrap my head around paying for that magical college experience.

Read This Article >
August 16, 2019

Economic Update: Interest Rates and Manufacturing

In December, we wrote about the yield curve and tariffs, and today the same topics are still in the financial headlines. At that time, we showed a chart of the yield curve and how it was ever so slightly inverted. Since then it has changed significantly, and we now have more evidence that the global economy could be on the verge of a recession.

Read This Article >
July 12, 2019

Rent vs. Own a Home: How do you decide?

Today we are writing about a personal finance topic that comes up regularly in various forms. Should we continue to rent or should we buy? When will the housing market come down? It’s so expensive!

Read This Article >
June 12, 2019

A Personal Trainer for Your Financial Health

There are many similarities between maintaining financial health and physical fitness. Both take work and consistency to maintain and it’s important to follow a plan. Some people are quite good at keeping physically fit and just include going to the gym or exercising as part of their daily routine.

Read This Article >
May 29, 2019

Our New Website is Live!

We recently updated our website to better reflect what we do for our clients. While the old site worked, it didn’t clearly explain our core services or allow potential clients to understand who we are and how we can serve them.

Read This Article >
December 7, 2018

Fall Update: Tariffs and The Yield Curve

This year has not been so good for financial markets with the best performing asset class being large cap U.S. equities which are essentially flat for the year (as of December 6th).

Read This Article >
April 20, 2018

Tempted to time the market?

The debate on whether investors can successfully time the market is fascinating.

Read This Article >
December 20, 2017

Compare Your Taxes Under the New GOP Bill

As the final votes in the House and Senate are taking place today, we are busy crunching the numbers for how this will impact individuals and families.

Read This Article >
November 30, 2017

GOP Tax Reform: How Will It Impact You?

There has been a lot of discussion about tax reform lately with the House having passed their tax reform bill in mid-November and now the Senate is set to vote this week on a similar bill.

Read This Article >
October 23, 2017

Demographics, Elephants and the Stock Market

Market commentators propose plenty of reasons for why the S&P 500 continues to make new all-time highs. There are three basics concepts that get repeated in various forms.

Read This Article >
October 18, 2017

Fall 2017 Client Update

First off, we are revamping our website and these updates along with other posts are going on our blog going forward.

Read This Article >
June 29, 2017

Summer 2017 Client Update

As we move into summer with school out and vacation season upon us, we want to update you with the news from HarborLight Investments.

Read This Article >
March 9, 2017

HarborLight 2017 Q1 Client Update

We are pleased to announce that updated model portfolios are being rolled out across client accounts.

Read This Article >
April 26, 2015

Generating Income From Dividend Growth

For an investor who wants to use income from her portfolio for spending needs, there aren't a lot of good choices today.

Read This Article >
March 26, 2015

U.S. Economic Data Is Turning Down, Will The Fed Notice?

Many market participants are focused on the Fed meeting this week, but we like to focus on hard data rather than the nuanced language of the Fed statement.

Read This Article >
December 4, 2014

Where TLT will go when the FED raises rates

The Federal Reserve has been hinting at an increase in short-term interest rates some time in 2015 for much of the past year.

Read This Article >
September 16, 2014

Diversification at Its Best

Stocks are flying high and equity markets feel like a low-risk, high-return, can't-lose investment right now.

Read This Article >
Jason Draut, CFP®
info@harborlight.investments
516 El Cerrito Plaza
El Cerrito, CA 94530
510-558-8272
Chris Sheehy, CFP®
info_sc@harborlight.investments
180 7th Ave Suite 204
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
831-291-3843
© 2020 HarborLight Investments