Hacker News Reader

Comment by idontpost | Hacker News Reader

No, you can't.

The number of people in this thread who don't understand RSU grants at all is kind of shocking.

You're granted $800k of RSUs up front at the current stock price, 25% percent vests every year. That is VERY different than buying 200k of stock every year because the 800k is all granted at the INITIAL price, whereas buying 200k every year buys stock at the CURRENT price.

If you could take 200k cash every year and then time travel back to the start of the period with it and buy the stock, THAT would be equivalent to RSUs.

View on HN

You are right that it is different, but it's not unambiguously better.

In the rather special case that stock price is monotonically increasing, there is an obvious benefit to locking in the earliest price you can.

On the other hand, if you have more cash every paycheck, you can trickle it into other potentially high growth companies and spread your risk. And you don't lose anything by leaving on a date you choose. And, as shopify has recently demonstrated, being locked into last years price could mean you lose a lot.

We've just left an extraordinary period of growth for tech stocks, but it won't always be that way.

> You are right that it is different, but it's not unambiguously better.

That's a separate issue from the common misconception in this thread that cash is the same as RSUs.

RSUs have more risk than cash, and more potential upside. They are unambiguously different.

Agreed - it's a mistake though to focus on the upside only.

You can protect downside by switching jobs. For many people on this thread there’s no mistake.

That's practical, but not really equivalent. Having the same in cash gives you a different set of options.

> No, you can't.

What are you replying to? That you cannot buy the stock? Because that is demonstrably false.

> If you could take 200k cash every year and then time travel back to the start of the period with it and buy the stock, THAT would be equivalent to RSUs.

Except that's not what the OP wrote.

> The number of people in this thread who don't understand RSU grants at all is kind of shocking.

Let me rephrase you - The number of people, yourself included, who are completely ignoring what the OP wrote to just rant about RSUs and seem more intelligent is... not shocking at all.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com