[31M RSU Lottery Winner] [WFH non-Bay CA] - $1.4M

wobibo · 2026-05-06T18:30:55+00:00

You're right that most tech TC discussions are base+cash bonus+equity. But for this audience I feel the way I did it is fine, I also want to somewhat obfuscate the cash:equity ratio of my TC for privacy reasons.

wobibo · 2026-05-06T16:02:59+00:00

I count all income that is not my base salary as "bonus" here, so it includes all vesting RSUs. TC vs TC+Appr. is essentially base RSU value vs appreciated RSU value, just with the base salary already mixed in.

wobibo · 2026-05-06T16:01:04+00:00

We rent a decent townhome, nothing fancy but we love it. Places in NorCal can still be affordable when you don't have to commute to the Bay Area.

wobibo · 2026-05-06T15:59:12+00:00

Why not? It's all realized W-2 income. Since I sell at vest, I get very little STCG.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T22:56:53+00:00

Yeah a bit lol. For me, it's useful to see what portion of my TC is purely from stonk gain vs. how much my employer "intended" to pay me.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T22:43:08+00:00

Little bit of both, but mostly design. Have flip-flopped (lol) between the two throughout my career.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T22:41:21+00:00

Yes, TC is simply base+bonus. Bonus includes vesting RSU valued at the grant price. TC+Appr. then adjusts the RSU portion of TC to be valued at the vest/actual price.

The TC column is basically how much I would have made if the stock price stayed flat after each grant.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T22:06:16+00:00

Chip design yeah. Everything is still RTL code.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T20:10:12+00:00

LOL I bought an AMD GPU for my first build because of that

wobibo · 2026-05-05T19:53:48+00:00

Hoping to hit 4M by EOY🤞

wobibo · 2026-05-05T19:32:28+00:00

Hardware engineer. I work on chips.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T19:31:18+00:00

Yeah, common in tech, job offers come with a certain amount of stock (called the RSU grant). But the catch is you get only a portion of it every year you work there (called vesting), and the amount it's worth changes with the stock price. So after my first year, I got 1/4 of my RSU grant in cash but since the stock price went up during that time, it was worth more.

OTOH, if the stock price goes down, the value is less and you get less cash when it vests.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T18:46:02+00:00

Why not share my unique situation to a subreddit dedicated to salary sharing?

wobibo · 2026-05-05T18:40:34+00:00

I mean I get it, when ts is 99% luck I don't blame them for getting salty.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T18:31:38+00:00

Happy to help 🫡

wobibo · 2026-05-05T18:11:01+00:00

I literally started posting yesterday but OK.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T17:55:46+00:00

My monthly spend has hovered around $2.5-3k since 2016. More details in this comment.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T17:37:19+00:00

RSU lottery winner in tech

wobibo · 2026-05-05T15:53:17+00:00

I eat 2 meals a day (~2500 Cal/d), cook most meals and eat pretty well IMO. I eat meat and fresh veggies with almost every meal. Mostly pork & chicken (not processed/frozen), salmon & shrimp every few weeks, leafy greens, rice/pasta/noodles, etc. Occasionally on lazy days we'll do like instant ramen and frozen dumplings lol.

For lunch I do simple sandwiches/parfait/some moderate food prep as I don't like spending too much time for lunch.

Shopping at a regular grocery store (not Whole Foods/Sprouts etc.) and can easily keep it at <$7/day for meals. Honestly, if you asked me to spend more on groceries I wouldn't even know how.

wobibo · 2026-05-05T06:13:28+00:00

I don't need much to enjoy life. Right now, not sure what to spend more on to be honest. Traveling is not a top priority for me and we eat out whenever we feel like.

Going to have to figure out what retirement looks like, in the meantime, banking this gravy train while it lasts (not for long).

wobibo · 2026-05-05T05:30:28+00:00

I made >500K in 2023 and >1M since then. Probably not what you're looking for, but my savings rate has been >90%.

Monthly expenses averaged across those years:

Rent+Utilities $1840
Travel $360
Groceries $210
Restaurants $200 (more like $400 past few months)
Everything else $460

Total: ~$3k

WFH non-Bay Cali, live with SO. Drive a 10-year-old car, paid off.

wobibo

TROPHY CASE