Vested.
A weekly note on equity compensation, taxes, and the financial decisions that come with a tech career. One short, useful piece every week. No fluff, no market commentary.
Recent issues
The Tender Offer Decision: How Much to Sell, and What Selling Nothing Actually Costs You
A tender offer gives you three weeks to make a decision you may not get again for years. Declining to sell is not staying put. It is an active choice.
Read →Your Options Are 'Worth' $2 Million. Here Is What That Number Actually Means
The number in your spreadsheet multiplies your shares by a price you do not own. Here is what sits between that figure and what would land in your account.
Read →The Point of Risk Management Isn't to Make You Bet Less
You bet on your career and it paid off. The point of risk management is not to make you bet less. It's to keep one bad year from taking the bet away.
Read →What Happens to Your Unvested Equity If You Die or Become Disabled
The unvested RSUs you count as net worth are only a conditional promise, and death or disability tests it. Here is what your spouse would actually keep.
Read →How to Pass Appreciated Stock to Your Heirs Without a Giant Tax Bill
Hold appreciated company stock until death and the built-in gain can vanish for your heirs. Here is how the step-up, lifetime gifting, and the right tools work.
Read →Estate Planning Isn't Just for Old People: Why Tech Employees in Their 30s Need a Plan Now
Your equity comp made your household wealthy faster than your paperwork caught up. Here is why a will, trust, POAs, and beneficiaries matter now, not later.
Read →The Sabbatical Question: What It Costs, What It Takes, and How to Plan for One
A sabbatical is a plannable financial event, not a luxury for the wealthy. Here is how to price one, time it around your vests, and fund the income gap.
Read →How to Count Unvested Equity in Your Financial Independence Number
Unvested equity is real but uncertain. Here is how to count it in your net worth and financial independence number without ignoring or over-counting it.
Read →The Sequence of Accounts: Where to Put Your Money, in What Order
You max your 401(k) and call it a day. For a Bay Area high earner, that leaves money on the table. Here is the order accounts should actually be filled.
Read →What Financial Independence Actually Means for a Bay Area Tech Employee
Financial independence in the Bay Area is not a retirement age, it is a number that buys options. Here is how to calculate yours, and reach it faster.
Read →What Happens to Your Financial Plan When One of You Wants to Leave Tech
One of you wants out of tech. Here is how to model the income gap, time it around your vests, and stress-test the household before anyone gives notice.
Read →The Childcare Math Nobody Talks About: Dependent Care FSAs, 529s, and the Real Cost of Bay Area Family Life
Bay Area childcare can top $30,000 a year per child. How dependent care FSAs, 529s, and cash flow planning make the family math work for tech earners.
Read →His RSUs, Her RSUs: Building One Financial Plan From Two Equity Packages
Two tech salaries, two RSU grants, one household. Coordinate vesting, manage your combined concentration risk, and build one shared financial plan from both.
Read →Why two tech incomes create a tax problem neither income creates alone.
Your incomes add up the way you'd expect. Your taxes don't.
Read →You got a liquidity event. Now what? A 90-day action plan.
You got a liquidity event. Here's the 90-day action plan: cover the tax bill, diversify on a schedule, and protect your optionality.
Read →How much of your net worth should be tied up in your employer's stock?
If your employer's stock dropped 40% tomorrow and your team's headcount got cut the same week, would that be a bad month or a redrawn life?
Read →The 83(b) election: a two-page form that can save you hundreds of thousands
What if a single piece of paper, mailed to the IRS within thirty days of a date you may not even have circled on your calendar, was worth more than your next three years of bonuses combined?
Read →Your company is going public. What do you do with your options before the IPO?
What if the most expensive financial decision of your career is the one you make in the twelve months before your company goes public, not the day it does?
Read →Selling Concentrated Stock Without a Giant Tax Bill: Strategies That Actually Work
What would you do if you woke up tomorrow with $500,000 worth of a single stock, and selling it meant writing a check to the IRS for $150,000?
Read →Selling at a Loss Isn't Losing. For Tech Employees, It's a Tax Strategy.
What if the investments that are down in your portfolio are actually one of your most valuable tax planning tools?
Read →How to Find a Fee-Only Financial Advisor for Bay Area Tech Employees
If you work in tech and you've started thinking seriously about your financial life: the RSUs, the equity comp, the California tax bill, the question of whether you'll ever actually feel financially…
Read →How Bay Area Tech Employees Can Shelter an Extra $47,500 a Year in a Roth
Most tech employees at Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta have access to one of the most powerful tax-advantaged savings tools available to high earners. Most of them have never used it.
Read →The Bay Area High Earner's Tax Situation Is Different. Here's Why.
When was the last time you actually added up every tax you pay?
Read →Holding Your Company Stock Is Not a Strategy. Here's What Is.
If your company gave you $500,000 in cash tomorrow, would you put all of it into your employer's stock?
Read →You Have Stock Options. Do You Know Which Kind?
Most tech employees have never read their stock option agreement.
Read →$500,000 a year. Two incomes. Both in tech. And they felt like they were barely getting ahead.
That's not a spending problem. That's a math problem, and it's more common than you think.
Read →RSUs Are Not Bonuses: How Tech Employees Should Think About Restricted Stock Units and Concentration Risk
A household earns $600,000 per year.
Read →Navigating Pre-IPO Tender Offers: A Tax Strategy Guide
In the world of high-growth tech, the '
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