Financial Advisor for Airbnb new joiner- worth it?
I recently joined Airbnb (non-eng) and my unvested shares value is now > $1M. I’ve never grown up with wealth and have an opportunity to be represented by UBS through a connection. I’m curious if I should look into UBS and professional financial advising. I recently bought my first home so I don’t have too much cash so not sure if it’s worth their services if they are just managing retirement accounts. Appreciate any insights especially on how they might be able to help with RSU vesting and question I should ask if I take the meeting. Thanks! TC: 475k (with stock appreciation) YOE: 3 #personalfinance #investments #airbnb
I grew up lower middle class and now with 4 years of vested Airbnb stock, I’m a multi millionaire. Managing your money is really not that hard. All the information you need can fit on one sheet of paper. 1. Maintain 3-6 months of expenses in a savings account as a rainy day fund. 2. Every year, max out your 401k. Your money grows tax free until you retire. It’s basically free money from the government to encourage saving towards retirement. We use fidelity, which offers a target date retirement index fund. Set it up so all your money goes to that. 3. Don’t go into any debt, except for a mortgage. Don’t ever carry a balance on your credit card, ever. 4. Live below your means. You make more than you did before, but continue to live like you did before. Don’t allow lifestyle inflation into your life. 5. Once your rainy day fund has 3-6 months of expenses, here’s what you do with your money. If you have a known expense in the near future, like a down payment for a home, save for it. Otherwise invest in a 3 fund portfolio (Google it). The concept is you try to essentially be invested in the entire market, rather than a few stocks. You’re essentially spreading your risk across tons of companies whereas if you bought stock in a single company, if that company went under, you’d be in a very bad position. 6. Continue to invest every paycheck, regardless if the market goes up or down. Don’t get scared and take your money out of the market when there is a crash or recession. Look at what happened to people who pulled their money out of the stock market in March of this year! If you follow those steps, you’ll be good.
And generally you don’t want to keep your money in your vested RSUs long term. It is too risky. If Airbnb goes down, you lose not only your stock but potentially your job as well. You should transition towards index funds, like those in the 3 fund portfolio. You might have FOMO if Airbnb goes to the moon, but you reduce a lot of uncertainty and risk.
Thanks so much! Gold mine of information! With that huge some of money you’ve earned through RSUs, have you felt that you could use professional help to strategize on tax savings; either specifically with RSU vesting or other ways (I.e investing in real estate etc.) I bought my first home (6 months ago) and am not particularly saving for anything. I’ll take a look at your 3 fund portfolio.