[steelframe]

When I worked at Google I immediately sold my stock and diversified. In hindsight that "cost" me at least $2MM. At a subsequent employer I held the stock, determined not to make the same mistake again. That "cost" me nearly $100k before I realized that the new employer's stock was not going to do what GOOG did.

Anyway, congratulations to those Googlers who "picked" GOOG by not selling their GSUs and who made out like bandits. You certainly got lucky, and nobody should expect their own employers' RSUs to do the same.

Googlers from the past ~15 years are comparatively filthy rich. Imagine having had an opportunity to miss out on 8 figures of stock returns and only be left with 7 figures because you followed sound financial advice. Bruce Willis is no doubt dabbing his eyes on Memegen.

[YZF]

Different big tech but similar strategy. Sell and diversify. I think it's a reasonable one. The people that made more money took on more risk and gambled. If you went into e.g. the S&P 500 or real estate you probably did ok.

The last 15 years were good in tech but the earlier Google employees did even better.

I'm guessing neither of us made money on bitcoin or gamestop... I don't lose sleep over that.

[troad]

> Imagine having had an opportunity to miss out on 8 figures of stock returns and only be left with 7 figures because you followed sound financial advice.

A bit of perspective may be warranted. There are single mothers busting ass raising kids on tips and food stamps, while you're asking for sympathy for making out with only seven figures from your Google stock options.

[paulpauper]

yeah, survivorship bias is a thing

[j_timberlake]

> You certainly got lucky

I'm pretty sure the luck of being born with sufficient intelligence to work at Google is orders of magnitude greater than the luck of making big ROI on Google stock.

> because you followed sound financial advice

Most financial advice is there to help the clueless masses to not lose their savings to get-rich-quick schemes and then default on their debt during their next unemployment period. Anyone smart enough to do Silicon Valley work has probably outgrown those training wheels and can think for themselves when investing.

[saagarjha]

Being halfway decent with computers doesn’t mean you know what to do with money.