Davey Tree Flipbooks

4 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | March/April 2024 Any financial advisor will tell you that the key to achieving financial security for your family, is to realize a decent return on the money you're investing, and leveraging the time value of money. Historically, as measured against other investments like the S&P 500, Davey stock has proven to be a very sound investment, so that's one side of it. Although, past performance is no guarantee of future performance on Davey stock, or any investment. The other key component of the equation is time. Putting a little bit away over a long period of time is really what has made the major difference for many of our employee owners who retire with significant and life-changing amounts of Davey stock that they can live off in retirement. The earlier you can participate in employee ownership, or any financial instruments, combined with investing as much as you can afford and allowing that investment to grow, is a key factor in developing financial security down the road. An added benefit of Davey stock ownership, which is different from many employee-owned companies, is that you are not required to wait until retirement or your departure from the company to realize the appreciation benefit. If you have a need to purchase a home or fund a child's education expenses in the future, the Davey stock can be redeemed, after it has been held for the required time period, to accommodate those life changes. While the starting amount you can afford to invest might not seem like much, investing even a little bit through the ESPP as soon as you can, will add up over time. Both the ESPP 15% discount and the company match of Davey stock up to 4% for pretax contributions into your 401K are valuable company benefits providing you with, essentially, free Davey stock that can introduce you to employee ownership and help you realize your future financial security. A. In the past, eligibility to participate in the Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP) has been one year of employment, but at the May Shareholders' meeting we are proposing the shortening of the eligibility period for new employees to participate from one year to six months. The ESPP allows employees to buy Davey shares at a 15% discount through payroll deductions in amounts from $5 up to $250 per week ($500 bi-weekly). This change to accelerate the eligibility to participate in the ESPP for new employees was approved by the board of directors in December and will be voted on this May by our shareholders. To new employees, the benefit of this change is rooted in their ability to engage in employee ownership earlier, and to take advantage of the time value of money component when building financial security. We've all heard the proverb that "the second-best time to plant a tree is now, but the best time was 20 years ago." The same principle applies to investing. How many times have you heard someone nearing retirement look back and say they wish they would have put more into savings when they were younger? Q. HOW SOON CAN I BUY DISCOUNTED DAVEY STOCK? ASK THE CEO Pat Covey Davey Chairman, President and CEO

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