Monthly Archives: April 2022

Feature 2021

37. Finding Liquidity for Your Illiquid Shares with Vieje Piauwasdy

Personal Finance, , , , , , ,

If you’ve ever worked for a startup, then you know it can feel a bit like watching paint dry, waiting for the company to reach its light at the end of the tunnel, going public, and allowing you to finally cash in on all of your hard work and contribution. In many cases, it can take more than 10 years. And since the average tour of duty for a mid-level software engineer at a tech startup is just north of two years, it is fair to say not many are sticking around long enough to see the paint finish drying.

But what of their stock options? One of the main drivers of tech workers deciding to go work for untested and unproven startups rather than one of the more established incumbents with all of their fringe benefits, is for the potential financial rewards of getting in early and helping to build something from the ground up. 

In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge is joined by Vieje Piauwasdy, Senior Director of Equity Strategy at Secfi to discuss the various solutions out there to provide employees of private companies with the liquidity they need to exercise and take ownership of their shares before an IPO. Malcolm and Vieje share their own experiences counseling startup employees with illiquid shares, as the importance of developing a plan for what to do with those shares long before the company IPOs.

Vieje Piauwasdy discusses: 

  • Creating a plan to manage your cash flow in the years leading up to an IPO
  • The difference between recourse and non-recourse loans 
  • The value of exercising your stock options early
  • The importance of diversification when managing your stock options
  • And more

Connect With Vieje Piauwasdy:

Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:

About Our Guest:

Vieje Piauwasdy is the Senior Director of Equity Strategy at Secfi. As an equity compensation and taxation expert, he guides startup employees through the complexities of private company equity to ensure that no money is left on the table. Prior to joining Secfi, Vieje spent years at PwC, where he specialized in tax reporting and strategy for hedge funds, private equity funds, and asset managers.

 

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Feature 2021

36. Taking the Emotion Out of Investing with Daniel Crosby

Personal Finance, , , ,

The underlying theme of the stock market and the way it functions is that we are all rational actors in a rational world, acting on the very same publicly available information at the very same time. But the reality is that we are all irrational beings, living in an irrational world. We frequently do things that are against our best interests, such as selling off stocks during market crashes or worrying about cutting our spending only when we have plenty of money.

In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge is joined by Daniel Crosby, Chief Behavioral Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions, to discuss the ways our emotions often hurt us when it comes to managing our personal finances. Daniel and Malcolm discuss various techniques to protect yourself from acting on your impulses in times of financial stress, as well as their take on the true value financial advisors offer their clients in helping them to generate long term wealth.

Daniel Crosby discusses: 

  • Recency bias and how it can affect our decision making as investors
  • Financial life hacks designed to help you avoid your emotional impulses
  • The role that extreme loneliness plays in our decision making process
  • The importance of financial advisors and their value to clients beyond investment management
  • And more

Resources: 

Connect With Daniel Crosby:

Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:

About Our Guest:

Educated at Brigham Young and Emory Universities, Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets. Dr. Crosby recently co-authored a New York Times Best-Selling book titled, Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management.

He also constructed the “Irrationality Index,” a sentiment measure that gauges greed and fear in the marketplace from month to month. His ideas have appeared in the Huffington Post and Risk Management Magazine, as well as his monthly columns for WealthManagement.com and Investment News. Daniel was named one of the “12 Thinkers to Watch” by Monster.com and a “Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading” by AARP. When he is not consulting around market psychology, Daniel enjoys independent films, fanatically following St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and spending time with his wife and two children.

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Feature 2021

35. Common Tax Pitfalls to Avoid When Managing Your Equity with Daniel Hodgin

Personal Finance, , , ,

When it comes to your equity, every decision, whether it’s to do something with your shares, or to do nothing at all, comes with a tax consequence. But sometimes, the consequences of that action or inaction, are less obvious, until it’s a year later, the tax bill is due, and you have no idea how you ended up in this mess.

And while paying more taxes is simply a function of making more money, there is obviously something to be said for being proactive and doing your best to mitigate that tax bill, no matter how inevitable it may seem.   

In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge is joined by Daniel Hodgin, founder and CEO at Silicon Valley Tax Group, to discuss common tax traps and pitfalls to avoid when managing your equity compensation. Together, Malcolm and Dan break down the nuances of RSUs, ESPPs, and ISOs, and share some of their own rules of thumb for anyone who receives equity as a part of their total compensation each year. 

Dan Hodgin discusses: 

  • Keeping track of your cost basis to avoid reporting mistakes 
  • The importance of keeping ESPP shares with your company’s broker
  • Critical factors to consider when acting on your stock options
  • How to navigate exercising your ISOs without exceeding the AMT crossover point
  • And more

Connect With Daniel Hodgin:

Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:

About Our Guest:

Dan started his career in the field of taxation at Mohler, Nixon, & Williams, LLC. There, under the tutelage of some of the most respected tax specialists in the Bay Area, he worked on thousands of tax returns for a variety of client types. As his career progressed, Dan became a specialist in the area of high-net worth individuals and his clients included some of the world’s wealthiest people. It was working with those clients that gave Dan the exposure to some of the most complicated tax situations and allowed him to become the tax expert that he is today.

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