The Right Order of Financial Decisions for Google Employees

Most financial mistakes I see aren't wrong decisions.

They're right decisions made in the wrong order.

I've sat across from enough Google employees to know that the people doing this best aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who run their decisions in sequence. That's the whole game in financial planning for Google employees, and almost nobody is taught it.

Because the problem usually isn't a knowledge problem.

The people I meet are sharp. They max the 401(k). They read the threads. They know what a Mega Backdoor Roth is. They've heard of tax-loss harvesting, selling a losing position to offset taxes on a winning one.

And still, the pieces don't add up to a plan.

Not because any single piece is wrong.

Because the order is.

Why does the order of financial decisions matter so much?

Because money decisions are connected. They sit on top of each other.

You can't sell stock without triggering tax. You can't plan the tax without knowing your income. You can't structure your income without knowing what your life actually costs.

So when you start in the wrong place, you don't just make one off choice. You pour the whole foundation crooked, and every decision you stack on top inherits the tilt.

Most people start with the paint color and wonder why the rooms don't connect.

The order most Google employees actually use

Let me describe the sequence I see most often. Not because anyone chose it. Because it's the order the world hands you.

 

It starts with the stock.

Then investments, when someone tells you you're too concentrated and ought to diversify.

Income comes up only when the paycheck stops.

And cash flow, what you actually spend, what you actually need, almost never gets examined at all. It just gets assumed.

Read that order back to yourself. Stock, taxes, investments, income, cash flow.

It's exactly upside down.

 

What is the right order of financial decisions for Google employees?

Cash flow first. Then income. Then tax. Then investments.

That's the whole framework. Everything below is just what each layer means and why it sits where it does.

Start with cash flow, because it decides everything above it

 

In Google employee financial planning, cash flow is the least exciting question on the table, and the most decisive.

What does your life actually cost, and what is this money for?

It's the question that determines every answer above it. You can't size a position, time a sale, or pick an allocation until you know what the money is supposed to do. Nobody starts here, which is exactly why so many plans feel unsettled. The foundation was never poured.

Structure your income before you touch the tax question

Once you know what you need, you can decide how to produce it. From salary. From dividends. From drawing down accounts in retirement.

Most tech employees skip this layer entirely, because the W-2 made it automatic. The paycheck showed up, so income structure never felt like a decision. When the W-2 stops, the automatic stops with it, and suddenly the thing nobody planned becomes the thing everything depends on.

This is the layer I find people have thought about least and need most.

 

Why taxes are the wrong place to start

Taxes feel like the urgent layer. The bill is real and the deadline is fixed.

But you can't plan a tax you haven't shaped yet.

Your tax bill is downstream of your income, and once you have any flexibility over your income, you're shaping that bill on purpose. The retiree who controls their own drawdown has enormous say over their rate. The mid-career engineer has less, but more than they think, between timing, deferral, and how equity is handled.

Lead with taxes and you're optimizing a number you haven't set yet. That's the heart of equity compensation planning, and it's why Google RSU tax planning sits third, not first. It's powerful precisely because the layers under it are already decided.

Investment selection comes last, and that's not an insult to it

 

Which funds. Which allocation. Whether to trim the Google position, and how fast.

This is the layer everyone obsesses over, and it's the last one you should answer. Not because it doesn't matter. Because it can't be answered correctly until the three layers underneath it are in place.

How much Google stock you should hold isn't really an investment question. It's a cash flow, income, and tax question wearing an investment costume. Answer those first and the stock decision mostly answers itself.

Why does starting with the stock feel right when it isn't?

Because the concentrated position is the loudest thing you own. Starting there feels responsible.

But the stock isn't a starting point. It's an output.

Start with the stock and you end up making a tax decision you never priced, to solve a concentration problem you never sized, in service of a goal you never named. It feels like progress. It's motion without sequence.

 

What this looks like for two real Google employees

Picture two employees. Same comp. Same concentrated position. Same age.

The first starts with the stock. Sees a big number, decides to diversify, sells a chunk, gets a tax bill in April that erases much of the benefit, and still can't tell you whether they're on track for anything in particular.

The second starts at the bottom. Figures out what their life costs and what they're building toward. Maps income against that. Uses the income picture to time and shape the tax. Then, and only then, decides how much Google stock to hold and how fast to move it.

Same comp. Same position. Two completely different outcomes.

The second person had nothing the first didn't. No secret strategy. No better information.

They just ran the decisions in order.

You probably already have enough

This is the part most people don't believe. They assume the answer is more. More research, more strategies, more product.

It usually isn't. It's sequence.

Financial priorities for tech employees aren't a mystery. Cash flow, income, tax, investments. The framework is simple. What's hard is the discipline to start at the bottom when every instinct, and every loud thing on the screen, pulls you to start at the top.

Get the order right and most of the hard decisions get easier. Get it wrong and even the right moves work against you.

So before the next sale, the next conversion, the next reallocation, I'd ask the question underneath it.

What am I actually solving for, and is this the right layer to be solving it on?

That's the whole discipline. That's tech employee financial strategy in one question.

 

If you want to see your own order

Every situation has its own version of this sequence. Yours depends on your income, your equity, your timeline, and what you're building toward.

If you'd like to map yours out before you make the next decision, you're welcome to schedule a 30-minute introductory call. No prep needed. We'll just talk it through.

Schedule an Introductory Call (click here)

 

Continue Learning

Financial Planning for Google Employees: A Guide to Making Equity Compensation Work

"I Have $1M in Google Stock, Should I Sell or Keep Holding?"

"When a Client Asks About Silver, I Don't Answer the Silver Question"

 

Disclaimer: This is general information, not individualized tax or investment advice. Outcomes depend on your specific situation. Please coordinate with your CPA or advisor.