You’re Young and Work in Tech: Do You Need an Advisor?
Behavioral Finance | Blog | Planning Perspectives
You’ve been hustling at your tech job for a few years and now it’s finally starting to pay off. Your finances are looking healthier than ever and goals that once seemed distant are now within reach. You’re thriving… vibes are high… life is good.
Then, right on cue… here comes a random LinkedIn message from an investment advisor. Your first thought? “Do I really need help with this? Isn’t that something only rich people do? Is it even worth my time?”
These are valid questions. But here’s the deal, if you’re unsure of how to navigate life’s big financial decisions, manage your stock compensation, and balance the complexities of newfound wealth, working with a professional can make a real difference.
In this post, we’ll highlight a few common scenarios where clients often come to us looking for guidance.
Your Company Stock is Piling Up – Now What?
Your stock grants (much like your career) are starting to take off. What once started as a nice perk has grown into a significant sum and now you’re unsure of what you should do with it. Here are some of the common situations you may find yourself in where we could be helpful:
- You’ve never owned stocks before, so you’re unsure of where to start.
- You’re unsure if you should sell (how much to sell), buy more, or even how to think about your company stock.
- You know you’re concentrated, but don’t know what you’d invest in otherwise.
Life Milestones – What’s the Plan?
Life comes at you fast in your late 20s and early 30s. One minute you’re celebrating a promotion and the next you’re RSVP’ing to weddings, planning vacations a year in advance, house-hunting, or even thinking about starting a family. It can be such a fun period and it all seems to happen within the span of just a few years.
With so much going on, it’s easy to put off sitting down and taking the time to think about where you’re headed. But whether it’s being a homeowner, starting a family, or just building a safety net, these big life milestones deserve intentionality. Many of our clients come to us because they realize that to get where they want to go, they need a plan and someone with experience who can help them create one, thoughtfully.
This stage of life is about enjoying the present while preparing for what’s next. An advisor can help you find the balance that’s right for you, so you don’t always have to choose between the two.
Other Common Questions
Outside of the above, there are plenty of one-off questions that our clients often have… here are some of the more frequent ones (each of which, could be a blog post of its own):
- How much should I contribute to my 401k?
- What the heck is a “mega backdoor roth”?
- How much should I be saving? Am I spending too much?
- How much should I contribute to my ESPP?
- Taxes… ugh!
If you’ve found yourself Googling any of these and still feeling uncertain, you’re not alone. Working with a professional can help take some of these stressors off your plate by providing personalized, clear, and actionable advice so you can focus on what truly matters.
In the end, whether or not you work with an advisor comes down to your situation and goals. You don’t have to be ultra-wealthy to benefit from expert guidance. The right advisor can help you navigate complexity, stay on track with your goals, and free up your mental bandwidth for all the other things you’re juggling. So if you’re feeling uncertain, it might be worth a conversation. You’ve worked hard to get where you are—why not make the most of it?