Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by idontpost 1374 days ago
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.
2 comments
ska 1374 days ago
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.

link
idontpost 1374 days ago
> 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.

link
ska 1374 days ago
Agreed - it's a mistake though to focus on the upside only.
link
peyton 1374 days ago
You can protect downside by switching jobs. For many people on this thread there’s no mistake.
link
ska 1371 days ago
That's practical, but not really equivalent. Having the same in cash gives you a different set of options.
link
JAlexoid 1374 days ago
> 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.

link