Are You 35-45, make $500k+ with RSUs, and STRESSED about Money? Here's How to Fix It

If you're 35–45, earning $500k+, a lot of that from RSUs… Money probably stresses you out.

You’re not alone

Here’s what I hear ALL...THE...TIME....from tech professionals in your shoes:

1️⃣ "I'm earning more money than I ever imagined—why am I still stressed?"

2️⃣ "My RSUs feel like Monopoly money—how do I turn this into something real?"

3️⃣ "Why do I own so much company stock—and why does it keep me up at night?"

4️⃣ "I don’t want to hit 60 and my hard-earned equity vanishes in a crash."

Here's the simple truth

➡️ Complexity = Stress

➡️ Not having a clear financial system/plan = Stress

➡️ Too much company stock = Stress

How you fix it

Doing better ≠ higher returns. You're not stressed because you "aren't doing angel investing" or "didnt see the AI boom early and invest in Nvidia".

Doing better = having a plan and system for your money. Rather, you're stressed because a lot of money is coming in the door (🙂), a lot is going out (😔), the taxes are complex (😕), and you don't have a plan/system for it (👎).

You can create a system yourself, or partner with an expert

Both approaches can work. Its a function of your time, knowledge, interest, and psychology. For example, I recently helped five tech professionals:

➡️ Fix their RSU tax bill surprise every April

➡️ Sell their vested RSUs on autopilot ("Monopoly money" → diversified investments)

➡️ Reduce company stock exposure by 75% without triggering a huge tax bill

➡️ Smartly exercise ISOs and plan for AMT (with likely recoup in 1 year)

➡️ "FINALLY feel good about our money situation"

How you create a money system

Detailing out all the steps here could be the subject for 50+ future blog posts. But at a very high level, the key things you should know and tackle here are

• Know Your Cash Inflows and Outflows. Know your income, expenses, and target/hit a healthy savings rate. 401k + cash savings of 20% or more of income will put you on a healthy path. And these savings are what fuel your money system.

• (REITERATED) KNOW YOUR EXPENSES. This is the biggest miss I encounter. Everyone knows what their income is. But 98% of people either don't know, or materially under-estimate their spending

• Have a plan for your stock comp. Lots of "good" choices here --> but they need to be purposefully chosen. "I didn't know what to do with my vesting RSUs so I just kept them"= an unintentional decision (and a high risk one at that).

• Diversified, purposefully-made, risk-appropriate investing. Approach your investments unemotionally, know how much risk you can/want to take, and build a diversified portfolio. In most cases, don't own too much company stock.

• (REITERATED) PURPOSEFUL INVESTMENT STRATEGY. There are many "good" ways to invest. But you need to have intentionally chosen your strategy + the reason why.

• Tax knowledge + strategy. Have a good estimate of your tax burden and rates (there's 7-13 types of tax to focus on 😬). And know that withholding is weird on RSUs; ISOs/AMT are all sorts of odd; and most "sounds to good to be trust tax strategies" usually are (but some do exist). If you want to geek on on this, you can find more details here

• Many other things too. Spending aligned with your goals, debt management, appropriate insurance, estate plans, employee benefit selection. BUT....getting the above 4 things right will take you a long way!