409(a) Nonqualified Deferred Compensation plans present a fantastic way to defer taxes and build net worth. But, after many years of contributing to the program coupled with investment gains, these plans can become a substantial portion of your net worth. And because these plans are an unsecured liability of your employer they come with more risk than other forms of... Read More
Your Guide to the Mega Backdoor Roth: Case Study + Free Flow Chart
The Mega Backdoor Roth is a powerful new feature in many employer 401(k) plans that can turbocharge your savings. In this guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know about how the Mega Backdoor Roth works, why you should consider it, and some of the rules you need to know—including contribution limits for 2021. What is... Read More
The Tech Employees Guide to Portfolio Diversification and Concentrated Stock + Tax Saving Strategies
In this post, we’ll outline everything you need to know about diversifying a concentrated stock position. We’ll cover what is too concentrated, the benefits of portfolio diversification (and the drawbacks), plus provide some tips on managing taxes. In our conversations with Tech professionals, we’ve learned that most know they should diversify their portfolio. But they don’t know how to... Read More
How Much Company Stock Should I Hold? (Part 2 of 2)
This post is part two of ‘How Much Company Stock Should I Hold?’ In this article, we dive deeper into two areas: If you hold company stock, what form of equity compensation is the best to own, and How to maintain your desired allocation over time What Type of Company Stock Should I Hold? Let’s assume that you wish to... Read More
How Much Company Stock Should I Hold? (Part 1 of 2)
Chances are if you work in the technology industry, part of your compensation will include company stock. We’ve written about various forms of equity compensation before (RSU’s here and here, ESPPs here and here, Stock Options here) but today we want to address a question that anyone investing in their company ultimately has to answer: How much company stock should... Read More
How Does Your Company’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Stack Up?
Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) are a valuable form of equity compensation and an attractive benefit of working for many tech companies. And this form of compensation is becoming more popular, from startups to blue-chip firms, as companies realize that the plans are a cost-effective way to reward, motivate, and retain employees. But just because your company offers an ESPP... Read More
The Ins and Outs of Incentive Stock Options (ISO)
Many of our clients work in the technology industry, so we're familiar with all different types of equity compensation plans. We've recently written about two popular forms of equity compensation plans: ESPP and RSUs (here and here). In this post, we are going to look at another popular form of equity compensation—the stock option plan. Specifically, Incentive stock options or... Read More
What Can I Do?
This week I was scheduled to write a market update. The short version is that in 2020 it was down a lot, then up a lot, and, and as a result, now down a little for the year. (For more thoughts on the market and if it’s a good time to invest, you can watch a reply of our 23/10... Read More
Rebalancing: Simple, Effective But Not Always Easy
In Our Bear Market Playbook, we included rebalancing as part of the game plan when markets drop. Often overlooked as obvious and boring, it's effective and, therefore, not to be neglected. Most of the time, rebalancing is a risk management strategy as stocks get sold to fund other portfolio diversifiers. But during a market downturn, like Q1 2020, there is... Read More
Our Bear Market Playbook
This post isn’t meant to minimize the human impact that the Coronavirus has on those affected but simply to share perspective on the impact of the outbreak to the markets and a well-diversified investment portfolio. With the coronavirus pandemic now impacting the entire globe, markets across the world are reacting. As of Tuesday’s close, the S&P 500 index is off 26% from... Read More