Posted: 1/14/2026 2:19:45 AM EDT
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Wife's employer has been granting her RSUs for the last few years. The stock has been on the steady decline since she's been receiving the RSUs, and now, it's basically at an all-time low. More RSUs vesting this spring, and I'm wondering what we should be doing with it. We didn't sell after the last few vesting periods because the stock was sitting at < 50% of where it had been performing solidly in the past. Didn't need the money then and aside from 401k contributions and real estate, we don't generally feel comfortable with other types of investments, so we just left it there and did nothing. I guess just hoped it would steadily go up over the next few years instead of steadily going down, but now here we are... Still don't "need" the money, and I certainly don't want to sell at an all-time low as the company is a major player in an industry that will never disappear. I feel confident that it will rebound at some point in the future. But when? I obviously have no fucking clue. And if it does start to go up, how much of a gain do you typically want to see before you sell it and move on? Do I just pick number, place the sell order, and forget about it? We're in our mid-late 30s FWIW. I'm kinda sorta interested in learning how to invest in other equities, ETFs, etc. anyhow, and since my wife doesn't care what I do with the vested stock units, it seems I should come up with some kind of general investing strategy here to grow it as much as possible over our lifetimes. I won't get too specific, but let's pretend it's currently worth somewhere in the $50-$100k range. Wtf should I do with it? Thanks. |
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Originally Posted By GlutealCleft: At the least, pick a price at which you'd be comfortable selling it, and put in a limit sell for that price. This, underwater and a potential tax write off? Is there a long term potential for a minipeak? Set your sell price and she should update resume and be open to discussions. RSUs are just a reason not to pay her. Raise in the base is the gift that keeps on giving. |
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Originally Posted By olivers_AR: Set your sell price and she should update resume and be open to discussions. RSUs are just a reason not to pay her. Raise in the base is the gift that keeps on giving. What’s your logic here? OP indicated the company isn’t going anywhere. RSUs being a talent retention tool it’s obvious her managers want her to stick around so why be worried about updating her resume? My wife gets company stock periodically via RSUs, PSUs and ESPP. We just sit on it for now and collect the modest dividend. If the position gets too big or the price runs up we may trim it a bit but otherwise just leave it alone. |
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Originally Posted By CPshooter1: Didn't need the money then and aside from 401k contributions and real estate, we don't generally feel comfortable with other types of investments, so we just left it there and did nothing. I guess just hoped it would steadily go up over the next few years instead of steadily going down, but now here we are... I'm kinda sorta interested in learning how to invest in other equities, ETFs, etc. anyhow, and since my wife doesn't care what I do with the vested stock units, it seems I should come up with some kind of general investing strategy here to grow it as much as possible over our lifetimes. I won't get too specific, but let's pretend it's currently worth somewhere in the $50-$100k range. Wtf should I do with it? Thanks. Can you expand on the bold part? That just seems odd when you are talking generals but then very specific on RSU's? If I'm in your shoes, I'm doing a combination of what Procat above said. Let it ride while taking dividends and trimming. MEANWHILE, if I am in your shoes building: 1) Roth IRA's if eligible 2) Bridge accounts in S&P500 funds, VFIAX etc. 3) Borderline mentally backburnering the RSU's Basically creating "multiple streams of income" for when you are 50,55, 60 and beyond. As many buckets as possible and the RSU would be one. |
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Originally Posted By CPshooter1: The stock has been on the steady decline since she's been receiving the RSUs, and now, it's basically at an all-time low. .......... aside from 401k contributions and real estate, we don't generally feel comfortable with other types of investments, ........I'm kinda sorta interested in learning how to invest in other equities, ETFs, etc. anyhow, ........ let's pretend it's currently worth somewhere in the $50-$100k range. Wtf should I do with it? Thanks. This statement is odd. You say you like a 401k but not "other investments".... a 401k could invest in anything under the sun, to include things you "don't feel comfortable with". If you think stock in the wife's employer will increase more than your other investments then keep the stock. If not then sell it and invest the cash in the investments you believe will outperform the wife's employer stock. Assuming no major tax ramifications I would likely sell the stock. Once sold you can always reinvest the cash back into the company stock if you really want to, but you are gaining control of the money. There's often blackout periods and rules about when employees can sell stock provided as compensation (RSUs, options, etc). In other words the wife probably cannot sell the stock during a period spanning an earnings release, so she's stuck holding the stock when bad news comes out and tanks the stock. In a previous life I saw many people stuck with tons of options go from big profit to a loss during an earnings release, merger/acquisition, etc. A bird in the hard vs two in the bush is a real thing, and having control of your assets is better than not having control. |
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I always tell people who get RSU's the same thing: If you company, paid you in CASH versus these company stocks..... what would you do with the cash? Would you immediately spend ALL of it on the single company stock? If so - keep it. If not - then sell it at the earliest opportunity. You see the result. Just because you own something, does not mean you SHOULD own something if it is not part of your investment plan. Now that it is "underwater" your choices are to hold it and wait, sell it and take the capital gains loss (be sure to be aware of the wash sale rules on when you sell it), or slowly sell off chunks to offset other capital gains. If you do not believe the company stock will outperform the S&P500 or to total market average in the coming years, I'd absolutely dump it all, now, and invest the money in a taxable brokerage account at Fidelity or Vanguard (or wherever you already have accounts and are comfortable with) in something like VTI for the long haul, for long term growth and tax efficiency. |
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I have been where you are. Unless you expect the stock to perform really well (which it hasn’t been doing), if you were taxed at vesting (which most do now), sell it immediately and invest in something simple that will out-earn that stock. If you do nothing else but put it in the same investments you like from your 401k, you’ll do better. You can also just put it into some of the index ETFs or Mutual Funds commonly championed here on arfcom and do better. If you have already taken the hit on taxes, get the money (that’s what those stocks are) working for you. I made the fundamental mistake of letting stock in a former employer sit there because I “didn’t need the money”. It languished and eventually lost value. Had I sold and invested that same money, it would have been compounding the whole time. Bottom line is that if you wouldn’t buy a stock, don’t continue to hold it unless it’s part of a meaningful tax strategy. |
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I get RSUs that I can sell quarterly and an ESPP that I can sell immediately when it vests every month (40% discount for me up to 10% of my salary). As a general rule, I sell it all as soon as it vests then I put the money into VFIAX which has been outpacing my company stock. |
| I typically hang on to mine for a year but I'm in the Oil and Gas industry and mine are headed in the right direction. I have RSU's and do and ESPP as well and more or less treat it as my savings account. It's typically 2-3% of my holdings at any given time. If you don't need it I would let it ride. But if you've made a bunch of money in other places this year I might try to offset those gains by selling it for tax purposes. |
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Originally Posted By Procat: What’s your logic here? OP indicated the company isn’t going anywhere. RSUs being a talent retention tool it’s obvious her managers want her to stick around so why be worried about updating her resume? My wife gets company stock periodically via RSUs, PSUs and ESPP. We just sit on it for now and collect the modest dividend. If the position gets too big or the price runs up we may trim it a bit but otherwise just leave it alone. When our company started offering RSUs the percentage of our merit increase sharply dropped accrossed all positions. Raises got smaller. They replaced larger raises with RSU instead. Thats been my only experience with them so its anecdotal I guess. |
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Originally Posted By FoxValleyTacDriver: When our company started offering RSUs the percentage of our merit increase sharply dropped accrossed all positions. Raises got smaller. They replaced larger raises with RSU instead. Thats been my only experience with them so its anecdotal I guess. Are you sure they’re RSUs and not a performance based system like PSUs or PSAs? |