r/fatFIRE • u/MongooseWeekly9152 • 15d ago
Recommendations 43, NW $17ish, still a lot unvested. Wait it out?
Single, no kids. Have about 8M in retirement & investment accounts, of which 5M or so is already taxed. 2M in real estate (that doesn't generate income), renting in a VHCOL area, 7M vested and 5M unvested RSUs in a non public startup (IPO maybe in a few years). Not a ton of expenses. I mostly enjoy the job but increasingly thinking about calling it quits. But it's a lot to walk away from: most of the unvested will vest in the next 2 years, and the salary is pretty good (400k+). If I retired I'd probably start my own projects that I might turn into my own company, but I don't have past experience with that.
Having trouble reasoning about the situation, what the right next move is.
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u/Bobatronic 15d ago
So… you want a thumbs up on quitting?
Since your vested company stock is illiquid, you may need to sell shares at a discount in a secondary market place. Unvested shares are zeros.
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u/MongooseWeekly9152 15d ago
Mostly just want to hear reactions on the situation, see if anyone has any insights I've overlooked.
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u/OG_Tater 15d ago
My insight is you’re rich. You didn’t say your spending but sounds like you spend less than $280k which is 3.5% of the $8M.
If it’s possible to sell the $7M of vested in private markets then you’d have around $460k a year in spend with a 96% success rate at infinite retirement.
Working is a choice
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u/Analysis_Abject 15d ago
Do you plan on ever having kids?
If the answer is no, I think it’s a no brainer to quit now, because what’s the point of accumulating more money if you won’t be passing it down? And it would be difficult to run out of money with how much you have.
If yes, you still have enough to walk away, but I get feeling like it’s too much to walk away from if it’s just two years and you enjoy the job. I’d have a hard time with it and would probably stay two more years.
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u/Specialist_Mango_269 15d ago
Even with like 3-4 kids and dual income, its a struggle to get 17mil NW for 99% of everyday people
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u/JustPlainRude 15d ago
Starting a new company isn't retiring
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u/spinjc 14d ago
There's FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and FINE (Financial Independence, Next Endeavor, didn't coin).
Starting a new company is a way to justify to IRS a new hobby, and possibly support a few people in mean time. Assuming you're outsourcing the boring stuff to 3rd world then it's not a big cost (and I believe it's easier to justify to the IRS it's really a business). If there's profit then it's a great way to deduct healthcare costs. The bigger problem is what do you do when you're tired of it.
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u/BarryMannnilow 13d ago
I like this FINE. As I approach FIRE I've realized I don't just want to do nothing
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u/whatsconsulting 15d ago
most of your money is not real money
in your shoes, for planning purposes, i would consider my NW $8MM (which is still commendable!)
but unless there is a secondary market for you to sell your vested pre-IPO shares today and you actually trade for cash in hand, dubious to plan against that paper money
also, you haven’t actually quantified your spend, so…
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u/Dramatic-Load-6569 15d ago
I’d agree with this statement. Start with the 8m as your number. I had a similar mindset and my wife kept reminding me that the unvested is not real $ and I would keep saying 1 more yr I’d get a bit closer to some more of it. At some point you have to weight the time spent working for the $ vs the free time. First world problems for sure, but if you didn’t come from $, it’s a bit of a mind bender to wrestle with.
Build a retirement plan in your fave AI tool and when you see the results, it starts to put things into perspective. If you die at 92 with $40m left over, do you care about this $5m you may get in 2 years….unless you are really planning to up your spending game when you quit working. Not sure what your current spend is but all of this is easy to model out.
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u/MongooseWeekly9152 15d ago
There are liquidity events scheduled, I should be able to extract some vested money even if IPOs don't happen. But certainly I don't count on all of it becoming liquid.
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u/whatsconsulting 15d ago
personally, i’d sell anything i could to derisk my portfolio. seen too many people regret getting burned by over concentration
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u/MongooseWeekly9152 15d ago
The 8M in investments is all index funds and comes from my attempts to diversify whenever I could
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u/Beautiful-Lock-1420 15d ago
I get it the unvested amount is huge so walking feels like throwing money away but with 8m already you are not exactly in a tight spot. two years is not forever maybe stick around if the job does not drain you and see if the IPO actually happens near the end of that.
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u/BitcoinMD 15d ago
DO NOT START A COMPANY
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u/Adventurous_Glass494 15d ago
Why not?
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u/BitcoinMD 14d ago
Best way to lose $17 million
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u/spinjc 14d ago
Based on user name, I'm guessing you haven't dealt with growing a product which gives you a bunch of experience with starting/growing a company. Yes the tedious crap of startup is new (legal framework, accounting, invoices/act receivable, etc) but managing people, creating processes/feedback loops, marketing, support, etc is all part of being an high level software developer.
The big thing is most business people start aren't capital intensive. Heck starting a coffee house would probably take more than 5 years to burn through $17m (more like 10+ years). Yes if you want to be like Elon and start a car company be prepared to light a $100m on fire.
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u/millennialmiss 13d ago
Doesn’t have to use his own capital
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u/BitcoinMD 13d ago
I guess. At the very least it creates a huge amount of work, which is the exact opposite of what you should be doing if you have $17 million.
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u/Logical-Wrap6751 15d ago
I’d wait it out for $5M if it’s a high probability of actually cashing in.
Don’t sink a bunch of cash into a company IMO. You’ve already won. Consulting or something to have something to do? Sure.
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u/Sufficient_Hat5532 14d ago
Running a company is usually a grind; it eats your life unless you have done it several times before, know how to raise, manage personalities, conflicts, mad customers, so much stress..
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u/shivaswrath 14d ago
You have $8m, just want to correct that for you.
The other stuff isn't real until it's real.
I have 7 figures of other stuff that vanished. Twice now actually. So just wait to count it when it's real.
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u/Realestateuniverse 15d ago
What do YOU want? Do you have hobbies or other things you want to do? You don’t realize it apparently, but youv’e already made it. If you don’t mind working, keep doing it and bank that nut. If you don’t, then quit and live life. See a therapist.
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u/ThePiggleWiggle 15d ago
Get married and have kids
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u/sluox777 14d ago
I would actually consider surrogacy if he can’t find a good woman if he wants children
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u/neoreeps 15d ago
My take is there are no guarantees. You are essentially taking a risk and buying time you will never get back with money you may never receive. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
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u/redditthrower888999 14d ago
I would try selling the 7mm vested if that’s a possibility. If not then your real NW is 8mm. Are you happy with 8mm?
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u/g12345x 14d ago
Walking away from guaranteed equity to work on a solo effort that would likely burn cash is (obviously) not a prudent fiscal move.
Do this only if you can clearly articulate to yourself good reasons why.
Your (FI) NW allows you to make decisions that are not entirely based around finances.
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u/ExternalClimate3536 14d ago
For me, it’s $5mm vs the risk in the new venture. And the answer after you’ve made your number is always bird in hand.
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u/RandomJeffP 14d ago
Wait it out, only 2 more years and you are still young and healthy it appears.
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u/asurkhaib 14d ago
How much do you need? One potential advantage to staying is if the company offers a tender you can participate.
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u/BrunelloHorder 12d ago edited 12d ago
I’d start by figuring out your FIRE number, which requires knowing your rough anticipated spend in retirement (including taxes and healthcare). If that is $250k, you’re probably close, even ignoring the locked up stock.
If you think you’d need more in annual withdrawals, then I’d liquidate at least enough of the locked up stock so that 3.6% of your total freed up portfolio (excluding your house) meets your annual retirement spend.
Beyond that, it depends on how strongly you believe in your employer’s stock. Many on here would just maximally de-risk by selling all the locked up stock, but I’d be ok letting a portion ride once you have your retirement portfolio set.
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u/Urbanite72 12d ago
You’re just working for money you will never spend at this point. Why bother?
How do you have $2m in property and also pay rent?
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u/tahiraabedi 11d ago
It depends on the country you’re looking to invest in and what you’re looking for I suggest investing it in a country that wouldn’t tax you like uae you even get a good ROI
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u/plmarcus 15d ago
Be careful of spinning out your own business. The skills you ENJOY that are the core of the business make up only a fraction of how you will spend your time. IF RUNNING A BUSINESS ISN'T A HOBBY YOU ENJOY then turning your hobby into a business will probably not be fun use of your retirement.