Over many blog posts and over many conversations with clients and colleagues, I’ve trotted out a few different ways of framing and understanding RSUs. I never know what framing is going to hit home, so I thought I’d gather them all into one post. Maybe one thing I write below will finally make you go, “Oooooohhhhh! That’s how they work.” A gal can hope.
Have you been waiting a Very Long Time for Airbnb to go public? Did you get all excited back in September of last year when Airbnb announced that it would go public in 2020? Are you beginning to wonder if it will ever happen? All that lovely stock, all those beautiful RSUs, all those tempting stock options…when will they turn into MONEY?!
You work for a public company. Your RSUs are continuing to vest. The stock market and, more importantly, your company stock have dropped a lot in price. Even if you’ve been comfortably following a strategy with your RSUs, are you feeling a wee bit less certain about the strategy right now?
Presumably you have been consuming a lot of media about the coronavirus and the recent stock-market drop. Over the last two weeks, the financial media has been bleeding and leading, so I thought a less hysterical commentary on at least the stock-market part might be helpful. Read More
I am an investment advisor. I believe that I, and many other investment advisors, bring real value to our clients’ lives. But man, this profession is rife with, mmmm, unseemly behavior.Read More
You’ve got gobs of stock or options in Airbnb. Or Palantir. Or some other valuable but private company. The money is So Close. You can almost feel it. And yet, you can’t. ‘Cause your company is private. Oh, the torture.
Should I exercise my options? When should I exercise my options?
If you work in a private company, I’m betting these questions go through your head with annoying frequency. And they’re hard questions to answer! Will the company succeed? Will the stock be worth anything? A lot? It’s all crystal-ball territory and therefore there are very few obvious or knowable answers.
As is part of my weekend tradition, this past weekend I read Jason Zweig’s column (paywall) in the Wall Street Journal. (And yes, to answer your unasked question: I do revel in embodying some stereotypes of financial professionals.)
We’re pretty good at saving for the long term (retirement). We have our 401(k)s and IRAs. We’re pretty good at saving for now. We have cash in our bank accounts. But what do we do for the *decades* between now and retirement? How do we save and invest for that?
