Concentrated Stock

Most Google employees think RSUs are a compensation event.

The IRS agrees.

The problem is that the IRS is only describing the tax treatment. It isn't describing what actually happens.

One of the interesting things about Google is that it has probably created more accidental investors than almost any company in history.

A Googler sent me an article recently about Anthropic’s infrastructure deal with Google Cloud.

The headline was about AI- the part I think actually matters for googlers (and xooglers) holding RSUs  was about something else entirely.

Let me explain:

I’ve heard versions of this question repeatedly from employees holding Google stock.

If you've worked with a financial advisor for any length of time, you've probably brought something up that you read about or heard about; be it a trend, an asset, or a strategy that caught your attention.

What happens next tells you a lot about the relationship.

In Jurassic Park, the scientists didn’t fail because they lacked intelligence.

They solved every problem in front of them. The system worked exactly as designed.

And then the problem showed up all at once.

Most retirement plans don’t fail because people are too aggressive.

They fail because they’re just reasonable enough to go unquestioned.

A Googler asked me this week whether 3% was a solid COLA projection for retirement planning.

It’s a reasonable assumption.

It’s also doing more work than most people realize.

Every spring, the financial industry publishes its version of what you should be worried about. This year the list includes geopolitical conflict, oil prices, tariff shifts, inflation that will not fully settle, and an AI investment cycle that is reshaping entire sectors,  including the ones many of you work in every day.

The data behind all of it is real.

For many employees at large technology companies, Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) can accumulate into a significant portion of their net worth over time.

Years of vesting schedules, refresh grants, and strong stock performance can gradually turn employer equity into one of the largest assets in an investor’s portfolio.