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You had a pretty good career if you have gotten RSUs at your jobs, most large companies outside FAANG and types don't give any stock options outside some pitifu

You had a pretty good career if you have gotten RSUs at your jobs, most large companies outside FAANG and types don't give any stock options outside some pitiful purchase plan.

scarface_74 1y ago
Just 3.5 years out of close to 30. I would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever go back to BigTech. It served its purpose.
- bravesoul2 1y ago
  Feel the same about small tech companies. You are the guinea pig to them learning how to run a business. No government or enterprise exp tho.
le-mark 1y ago
If traditional large companies do give stock options they’re at the closing cost of the date of the award (strike price). Not the zero dollar purchase price of big tech, which makes the much less attractive and profitable. I was at an insurance company that made a big deal about offering rsus to engineers. We were like is this a joke?
rufus_foreman 1y ago
The stock purchase plans at the two non-FAANG companies I worked for that offered them were amazing. One of them took money out of each paycheck for a quarter and then gave you the better of the price of the stock at the start or end of the quarter. So you got a chance at risk free profits if the stock jumped. I was told that some people put their entire paychecks into it until they put a limit on the percentage of the paycheck you could put in. The other one was a 15% discount off the stock price, again, done quarterly. Which doesn't sound huge until you calculate the annualized return. The annualized return on the first paycheck of the quarter was around 80%, the annualized return on the last paycheck of the quarter was around 3,000%. No lock up period and the smart thing to do would be to sell immediately and pay the short term capital gains tax. I'm not smart, I still have the stock from that one. It keeps going up but it could also go to zero at any time. I don't want to pay the capital gains tax though. I should probably look at put options. First world problems.
- BeetleB 1y ago
  ESPP programs are great, and I encourage everyone to participate. But do keep in mind that the IRS limits how much you can gain from them. My company allows you to put 15% of your paycheck into them, and almost everyone I know hits the limit. Which means the company is withholding 15% of your pay, but only using about 7-10% in purchasing the stocks. They simply refund the rest at the end of the cycle.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - rufus_foreman 1y ago
    Huh, looks like that was done in 2010, https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation/irs-issues-final-employee-stock-purchase-plan-regulations https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation.... The company where people were supposedly putting their whole paycheck in was before that. Some people have to ruin things for everyone. Both of the ones I participated in limited withholding to 10% of your net pay.
- bravesoul2 1y ago
  Nice. My advice is play the life game. The life game is thinking: Being broke sucks Massive improvement 10x once you save 10k 20k ain't much better. 30k.. until you get to a home deposit another nonlinear jump. Then with a home 100k gives you equity buffer. Next million does fuck all! Until you get to X million to not need to work. Based on this no one should go all in on something. But if you are secure holding a 1M position in one company you believe in may not be mad.
  - nickd2001 1y ago
    Here's a less stressful alternative as a counter of sorts... How about, live frugally, try to get a house in a not super expensive area, overpay the mortgage to get monthly payments down. Then work somewhere that's not super stressful or demanding, possibly public sector which can be very fulfilling, earning not as much as you might otherwise have, but having a nice enough life. Trying to accumulate millions so you never have to work seems to me something that's hard to do and stressful and won't necessarily make people happy because while having a job that sucks is no good, having no job doesn't necessarily being joy either. In fact just having a nice job seems to me the best option, and one can pick and choose if one doesn't need huge income. Motivation for this post = trying to steer people away from stuff that mightn't make them happy, and offer alternatives :). (My life is somewhat like that described above, despite having a family to support. Over the years maybe I could've earned far more. Not at all sure I'd be "happier" if I had)

You had a pretty good career if you have gotten RSUs at your jobs, most large companies outside FAANG and types don't give any stock options outside some pitiful purchase plan.

scarface_74 1y ago

Just 3.5 years out of close to 30. I would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever go back to BigTech. It served its purpose.

bravesoul2 1y ago
Feel the same about small tech companies. You are the guinea pig to them learning how to run a business. No government or enterprise exp tho.

le-mark 1y ago

If traditional large companies do give stock options they’re at the closing cost of the date of the award (strike price). Not the zero dollar purchase price of big tech, which makes the much less attractive and profitable. I was at an insurance company that made a big deal about offering rsus to engineers. We were like is this a joke?

rufus_foreman 1y ago

The stock purchase plans at the two non-FAANG companies I worked for that offered them were amazing. One of them took money out of each paycheck for a quarter and then gave you the better of the price of the stock at the start or end of the quarter. So you got a chance at risk free profits if the stock jumped. I was told that some people put their entire paychecks into it until they put a limit on the percentage of the paycheck you could put in. The other one was a 15% discount off the stock price, again, done quarterly. Which doesn't sound huge until you calculate the annualized return. The annualized return on the first paycheck of the quarter was around 80%, the annualized return on the last paycheck of the quarter was around 3,000%. No lock up period and the smart thing to do would be to sell immediately and pay the short term capital gains tax. I'm not smart, I still have the stock from that one. It keeps going up but it could also go to zero at any time. I don't want to pay the capital gains tax though. I should probably look at put options. First world problems.

BeetleB 1y ago
ESPP programs are great, and I encourage everyone to participate. But do keep in mind that the IRS limits how much you can gain from them. My company allows you to put 15% of your paycheck into them, and almost everyone I know hits the limit. Which means the company is withholding 15% of your pay, but only using about 7-10% in purchasing the stocks. They simply refund the rest at the end of the cycle.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- rufus_foreman 1y ago
  Huh, looks like that was done in 2010, https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation/irs-issues-final-employee-stock-purchase-plan-regulations https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation.... The company where people were supposedly putting their whole paycheck in was before that. Some people have to ruin things for everyone. Both of the ones I participated in limited withholding to 10% of your net pay.
bravesoul2 1y ago
Nice. My advice is play the life game. The life game is thinking: Being broke sucks Massive improvement 10x once you save 10k 20k ain't much better. 30k.. until you get to a home deposit another nonlinear jump. Then with a home 100k gives you equity buffer. Next million does fuck all! Until you get to X million to not need to work. Based on this no one should go all in on something. But if you are secure holding a 1M position in one company you believe in may not be mad.
- nickd2001 1y ago
  Here's a less stressful alternative as a counter of sorts... How about, live frugally, try to get a house in a not super expensive area, overpay the mortgage to get monthly payments down. Then work somewhere that's not super stressful or demanding, possibly public sector which can be very fulfilling, earning not as much as you might otherwise have, but having a nice enough life. Trying to accumulate millions so you never have to work seems to me something that's hard to do and stressful and won't necessarily make people happy because while having a job that sucks is no good, having no job doesn't necessarily being joy either. In fact just having a nice job seems to me the best option, and one can pick and choose if one doesn't need huge income. Motivation for this post = trying to steer people away from stuff that mightn't make them happy, and offer alternatives :). (My life is somewhat like that described above, despite having a family to support. Over the years maybe I could've earned far more. Not at all sure I'd be "happier" if I had)