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Frustrating to see the incredibly common conflation of equity and salary. Even though it’s always correctly suffixed with “compensation”, people assume that mea

by KMnO4 4y ago

Frustrating to see the incredibly common conflation of equity and salary. Even though it’s always correctly suffixed with “compensation”, people assume that means “a bank account with 8 zeros”.

tschwimmer 4y ago
That's because it effectively is. I suggest you look into pledged asset lines (and more broadly 'buy, borrow, die'), which are even more tax advantaged than just getting paid directly. Sure, there is some marginal cost associated with borrowing against granted equity, but it's almost certainly less than 10%. So yes, it is accurate to assume that if an exec vets $x00 million dollars of equity a year, they have a high percentage of that available to spend on whatever consumption or investment they desire.
- notacoward 4y ago
  Quite possibly the best comment in this thread. Some people are quick to say that the high on-paper number doesn't mean anything, but remain (in most cases wilfully) blind to the fact that the low on-paper number doesn't mean anything either. As you point out, the real number is unknown and often not fixed but for all practical purposes probably still way higher than most of us will ever experience.
NegativeLatency 4y ago
Feels like you're arguing semantics, either way the CEO is being made wealthy right? Probably still getting much more than they need to live off of, so some of that should go to the people getting let go.
PheonixPharts 4y ago
It's even more bizarre/frustrating for someone, especially in tech where many of our TC is largely RSUs, not understand that wealth is almost never held in cash. When I was young (and poor) I also believed that being rich meant having Scrooge McDuck piles of cash to swim in. After my first big RSU payout I quickly realized that nobody with more than a few 100k in assets keeps anything close to the majority of them in cash. Savings accounts are for the poor. Anyone, even in the every day millionaire level, keeps most of their wealth in non-cash investments, leaving only enough cash to cover crisis situations. Especially with inflation this high, holding cash is literally throwing money away. Nobody has a bank account with 8 zeros, except maybe lottery winners that never learned the basics of asset management.
- abirch 4y ago
  Scrooge McDuck was a gold bug so he may have kept the gold to swim in just like Peter Schiff
  - PheonixPharts 4y ago
    That's a great point, even Scrooge McDuck does not hold cash!
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Canonically according to Rosa the money bin is just his “personal memento” cash - the money he earned by hand and remembers every bit of. It’s only a portion of his fortune.
- dls2016 4y ago
  It does happen, though it’s a newsworthy event: https://nypost.com/2011/06/30/atm-receipt-showing-astounding-100m-balance-left-at-hamptons-bank/amp/ https://nypost.com/2011/06/30/atm-receipt-showing-astounding...
  - arthurcolle 4y ago
    > But it’s not clear where the customer spent his 400 bucks. Haha, I have an idea. P.S. Dealbreaker.com is great in general for tabloidy high finance news
- jasonfarnon 4y ago
  not putting everything in a "saving account" isn't the same as having it tied up in equity. OP was contrasting cash and equity.

by KMnO4 4y ago

tschwimmer 4y ago

That's because it effectively is. I suggest you look into pledged asset lines (and more broadly 'buy, borrow, die'), which are even more tax advantaged than just getting paid directly. Sure, there is some marginal cost associated with borrowing against granted equity, but it's almost certainly less than 10%. So yes, it is accurate to assume that if an exec vets $x00 million dollars of equity a year, they have a high percentage of that available to spend on whatever consumption or investment they desire.

notacoward 4y ago
Quite possibly the best comment in this thread. Some people are quick to say that the high on-paper number doesn't mean anything, but remain (in most cases wilfully) blind to the fact that the low on-paper number doesn't mean anything either. As you point out, the real number is unknown and often not fixed but for all practical purposes probably still way higher than most of us will ever experience.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

Feels like you're arguing semantics, either way the CEO is being made wealthy right? Probably still getting much more than they need to live off of, so some of that should go to the people getting let go.

PheonixPharts 4y ago

It's even more bizarre/frustrating for someone, especially in tech where many of our TC is largely RSUs, not understand that wealth is almost never held in cash. When I was young (and poor) I also believed that being rich meant having Scrooge McDuck piles of cash to swim in. After my first big RSU payout I quickly realized that nobody with more than a few 100k in assets keeps anything close to the majority of them in cash. Savings accounts are for the poor. Anyone, even in the every day millionaire level, keeps most of their wealth in non-cash investments, leaving only enough cash to cover crisis situations. Especially with inflation this high, holding cash is literally throwing money away. Nobody has a bank account with 8 zeros, except maybe lottery winners that never learned the basics of asset management.

abirch 4y ago
Scrooge McDuck was a gold bug so he may have kept the gold to swim in just like Peter Schiff
- PheonixPharts 4y ago
  That's a great point, even Scrooge McDuck does not hold cash!
- bombcar 4y ago
  Canonically according to Rosa the money bin is just his “personal memento” cash - the money he earned by hand and remembers every bit of. It’s only a portion of his fortune.
dls2016 4y ago
It does happen, though it’s a newsworthy event: https://nypost.com/2011/06/30/atm-receipt-showing-astounding-100m-balance-left-at-hamptons-bank/amp/ https://nypost.com/2011/06/30/atm-receipt-showing-astounding...
- arthurcolle 4y ago
  > But it’s not clear where the customer spent his 400 bucks. Haha, I have an idea. P.S. Dealbreaker.com is great in general for tabloidy high finance news
jasonfarnon 4y ago
not putting everything in a "saving account" isn't the same as having it tied up in equity. OP was contrasting cash and equity.