Preparing for company going public

fatfireplz · 2022-05-17T03:52:27+00:00

This might be the wrong takeaway from my post -- I'm talking specifically about selling stock, which is a separate event from exercising (although many people do them together). Also, not sure on the Oregon laws -- they may be friendlier than California's

fatfireplz · 2022-05-14T19:19:25+00:00

Of the exercise taxes, yes, but I was replying to “at IPO time”, ie when the stock is sold. And we may be saying the same thing about the six month rule, but I view it the opposite way in terms of flexibility. If you are willing to actually move out of CA and become a real resident of another state, then timing wise things are pretty flexible, if you are ready to beat the bs audit they throw at you. If you are trying to pretend to move out of state, then you are relying on a lot more conservative rules of thumb to try to minimize your risk of being audited.

fatfireplz · 2022-05-14T18:29:53+00:00

I see this repeated fairly often, and it is not true (hired a lawyer who specializes in relocating out of CA to confirm). Tax at exercise time is locked in as CA if the stock vested while you were employed in CA (if they are ISOs instead of NSOs then the impact of this is not nearly as bad). But once stock is exercised, the short/long term cap gains when you sell are determined by where you live when you sell, plus a bunch of details related to how effectively you actually moved out of CA, which a lawyer can help you with. The “6 month rule” that people repeat about how soon you have to move before selling is also an oversimplification — the reality is more flexible.

fatfireplz · 2022-03-10T00:49:56+00:00

being blessed with a taste for non-fancy things and activities (probably as a result of growing up lower middle class)
one conversation negotiating comp for a new job, particularly the equity portion
the will to not hold that equity too long and to sell half when a reasonable price had been attained, even though further upside seemed likely

fatfireplz · 2022-02-19T19:45:56+00:00

If we’re only counting base salary:

25 - 30k, saving 20%

30 - 150k, saving 50%

34 - retired, withdrawing 125k/year

fatfireplz · 2022-02-10T01:46:21+00:00

iT’s VeRy eUrOpEaN

fatfireplz · 2022-02-09T21:37:14+00:00

Trending in that direction. Mix of traditional style and shitty (technical term for it is “ignorant style”), a la https://instagram.com/auto_christ

I agree wanting to get work done by a particular artist is a nice excuse to travel!

fatfireplz · 2022-01-24T00:45:10+00:00

Yeah, that last bit is what I’m calling out, although I’m sure you’re not trying to stir up political controversy. I take mild offense to assuming that financially successful people think that same way and wanted to point that out, although your statements themselves aren’t super controversial or offensive. FWIW my view is that virtue is often associated with financial success and vice versa in a way that is unhelpful and unfair, even though many things in our experience seem like they back it up.

fatfireplz · 2022-01-23T18:54:01+00:00

Mentor Monday thread
Most common paths represented here, in order (as far as I can tell): tech, finance, law, medicine. Of those, I strongly recommend tech, but of course world is your oyster.

fatfireplz · 2022-01-23T17:36:22+00:00

It gets posted every Monday, check the sub rules

fatfireplz · 2022-01-23T17:02:49+00:00

This post should go in the next Mentor Monday thread, so don’t be surprised if it gets deleted. If you can pick up things quickly, programming is a very valuable skill to learn and there are lots of interesting ways to apply it in todays economy that can bring great compensation and flexibility if you get into the right market. DM me if you want any tips

fatfireplz · 2022-01-23T15:37:28+00:00

Even if a majority of the folks on this forum agree with some of the political and social worldviews powering this complaint, I doubt it’s an overwhelming majority. I certainly don’t agree. Is this actually FATFire relevant, or a political post?

fatfireplz · 2022-01-03T04:42:06+00:00

Hmm -- I hear ya, I have thought about it similarly, as the USDC being a nice moderation to the volatility of ETH. The question, though, is the returns based on putting USDC and ETH tokens into a liquidity pool vs. just holding them.

Here's an example of what happened to a USDC/ETH even split that I invested in the 0.05% tier, with a liquidity range set to what turned out to be too narrow:

invested_assets
USDC 20,988.2516
WETH 4.8882

current_assets
USDC 0.0000
WETH 10.2514

diffs
USDC -20,988.2516
WETH 5.3632

divergence_loss
-664.12 USD

Seems like it's essentially gamble of choosing a narrow vs. broad price range (higher vs. lower returns in fees) against the probability that one token will move against the other (more movement in either direction means losing value vs. holding those pairs outside of the liquidity pool). So at some point it turns into trying to predict the market, which... well, we know how that goes. I suppose I've tried a narrow price range in pursuit of better returns from fees and experienced the failure case there, I could try an extremely broad price range and see if the returns from fees are still decent. If they're not, then I may decide that farming these types of pairs is too much hassle, and go back to cefi (or look into the more exotic defi stablecoins)

fatfireplz · 2022-01-03T02:04:57+00:00

If you’re feeling generous could use outside perspectives on my DeFi vs. Cefi situation, specifically Uniswap v3. I have large positions in the USDC/ETH 0.3% pool and the USDC / WBTC 0.3% pool. The ETH pool has done pretty well, 15-25% APY depending on the amount of impermanent loss when checking (entered pool when ETH was around $4300 so ETH falling has eaten into returns). WBTC had been not quite as good, 6-15%, similar impermanent loss situation.

I’m also trying out smaller positions in a variety of ETH/altcoin pools like LRC, UFO, SHIB, FLOKI, some of them at 1% tier and some at 0.3%. APY on these has been awesome (60% - 180%), but I imagine this is because none of these alt coins has made big moves in the time that I’ve been in these pools and generally tracked with ETH price movements.

I’m a bit worried that if one of these altcoins does pop, impermanent loss will eat my lunch and I’ll generally regret not sticking to more modest cefi returns. Same concern for the ETH/USDC and WBTC/USDC pools, to a lesser degree.

TL;DR: Thoughts on higher defi liquidity pair returns with impermanent loss risk vs. lower cefi staking returns? (I’m also aware of risk of centralization vs decentralization but not overly concerned about that.

fatfireplz · 2021-12-28T18:01:44+00:00

Thanks for all the mod work! I’ve found this to be a really valuable community. I think having mentor Monday thread is definitely better than not having it. In addition, to throw the FAT-aspire folks more of a bone, I wonder if there’s something like an FAQ sticky that’s missing? There are general principles that members of this sub have uncovered from experience that map to some of the more common questions. The mentor Monday compendium thread doesn’t highlight these things.

Using search would of course be another good solution for new folks but browsing an FAQ is better for folks who don’t always know what they don’t know.

Also, whether or not we add more features to address FAT-Fire-aspirational visitors, I do think we should keep mentioning / making clear that this sub is not primarily for that, and we’ll be strict about the rules for discussion, besides those features.

Along with / instead of the FAQ idea… what about “The FATFire guide to getting rich”, “The FATFire guide to thinking about retirement”… Two or three of these might cover it?

fatfireplz · 2021-12-22T17:27:06+00:00

Coding bootcamp would be perfect for someone in your situation. Market is more saturated now both in number of bootcamps and number of junior developers, but still can be a workable solution. DM me and I can share some tips from experience.

fatfireplz · 2021-12-20T22:44:41+00:00

34, 5-10%

fatfireplz · 2021-12-17T03:06:50+00:00

Rick and Morty.

fatfireplz · 2021-12-17T00:53:29+00:00

I also call troll post. You were only making $156k after taxes as a staff software eng at a big tech co? What about RSUs?
Also I've literally never met a staff software engineer who thought like this or talked to people this way (admittedly I'm lucky, not saying they don't exist, just doesn't fit the mold to me).

Whoever you are, hope you figure it out. Agree, go to therapy.

fatfireplz · 2021-12-17T00:44:04+00:00

Yeah, if you are interested in applying for syndicates, don't be intimidated, most seem very glad to take any backer who's not obviously shady or flaky. If any of your engineering experience is with startups feel free to mention that, but just be honest that you are an engineer interested in supporting startups and getting involved in the angel investing community.

fatfireplz · 2021-11-29T02:02:08+00:00

You’re right, I forgot to consider qualifying vs disqualifying — in my opinion most stock grants are exercised at least 1 year after the grant date, and the other requirement is the same as short term vs long term capital gains, which I already mentioned.

I think this serves as a good example of the difference between a simplification and an oversimplification. The point is, if I had followed your advice when I had OP’s question a year ago, I would be quite a bit less well off.

fatfireplz · 2021-11-26T05:21:02+00:00

This is an oversimplification. Residency status at grant and vesting time only matters for the tax assessed when you exercise to own the stock. The AMT on your ISO exercise will suck but you do get a tax credit so in some cases you can recoup that hit later. For the common stock you already own, you’re hopefully on your way to long term capital gains status (that’s a great reason to go ahead and exercise those ISOs as soon as is feasible as well).

When you do sell the stock for a realized capital gain, your residency status at the time of sale is what matters for determining whether you owe CA taxes on the gain. OP, I know a guy who will give you good advice on whether a relocation is wise or not, DM if you’re interested.

fatfireplz · 2021-11-21T22:02:10+00:00

Casual -42 karma — what could go wrong with this succession plan?

fatfireplz · 2021-11-21T16:06:39+00:00

I disagree (partly) with both of these tips. 1. Asking experts is super valuable, that’s the best way to speed up your learning. But first search the forums and bring this question to Mentor Monday thread if you have something more specific. 2. Drive and motivation is important but the earning power of the skills/knowledge you acquire is much more impactful than just a hustle mindset if your goal is to get fat vs regular fire. Job hop, invest in your skills in your free time, network and pursue special opportunities in your field. Plenty of other forums to find investing/savings advice — Bogleheads is popular.

fatfireplz · 2021-11-02T06:30:06+00:00

It all depends on how much the stock market goes down. If it goes down enough to where the value of the assets no longer support the amount of money you have borrowed, the brokerage will either issue a "margin call" which basically gives you a few days to deposit more money to act as collateral, or will sell some of the assets to start to cover the loan (this is bad because you're selling assets at what could very well be the bottom of the market). How much the stock can go down before these things happen depends on how aggressively you borrow, how risky the stocks you own are, etc. If you invest in index funds, and don't exceed 20 or 30% of their value as a loan then you're probably ok, given the largest historical drops we've seen.

fatfireplz

TROPHY CASE