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BiggerPockets Money Podcast

What to Do When Most of Your Wealth Is in Company Stock

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Business, Education

4.5 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2026

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you work at a startup or public tech company and have RSUs, stock options, founder shares, or a potential IPO on the horizon, this episode could save you thousands—or even millions—in taxes. Equity compensation can be one of the fastest paths to building wealth, but it can also lead to costly mistakes if you don't understand the tax implications, liquidity opportunities, and diversification decisions involved. That's why we sat down with Equity for the Win founders CJ Sturmitz and founding investor Toby Johnston to discuss how employees and founders can navigate concentrated stock positions and prepare for major liquidity events. Connect with CJ and Toby Johnston To work with EquityFTW: https://www.biggerpocketsmoney.com/equityftw About EquityFTW: https://www.equityftw.com/about To go beyond the podcast: Kick start your financial independence journey with our FREE financial resources - https://biggerpocketsmoney.com/ Subscribe on YouTube for even more content- www.youtube.com/biggerpocketsmoney  Connect with us on social media to join the other BiggerPockets Money listeners - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BPMoney We believe financial independence is attainable for anyone no matter when or where you’re starting. Let’s get your financial house in order! - BiggerPockets Money (operated by Early Retirement Group, LLC) has a paid promotional arrangement with Equity FTW. Under this arrangement, Equity FTW pays BiggerPockets Money a cash fee of $100 for each prospective client who books a meeting with Equity FTW and is attributed to BiggerPockets Money, including through links on our website, references in our podcast, and other BiggerPockets Money channels. BiggerPockets Money is not a client of Equity FTW and is not an investment adviser, and nothing on this page or in any BiggerPockets Money content constitutes investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. This compensation arrangement creates a material conflict of interest, because BiggerPockets Money has a financial incentive to promote Equity FTW and to encourage listeners and readers to book meetings, regardless of whether Equity FTW's services are appropriate for any particular individual. The opinions expressed in BiggerPockets Money content are editorial; however, listeners and readers should consider this financial relationship when evaluating any statements about Equity FTW or its services. Equity FTW is solely responsible for the financial planning and advisory services it provides to its clients, and any decision to engage Equity FTW should be made based on your own independent evaluation and, where appropriate, consultation with your own qualified advisors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Today's episode is very timely. With major private companies like SpaceX going public this week

0:05.9

and more employees finding themselves with significant wealth tied up in company stock,

0:11.2

we're tackling one of the biggest financial decisions many people will ever face.

0:16.1

What do you do when years of stock compensation suddenly turns into real liquid money.

0:26.6

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen,

0:31.2

and with me as always is my doesn't currently hold any SpaceX stock co-host Scott Trench.

0:36.2

Thanks, Mindy. Yeah, great to be here. And I don't have any of these options that we're going to be talking about today. But looking forward to helping out those who do. Before we get into today's episode, BiggerPockets Money has a paid referral relationship with Equity for the Win, or Equity FTW, the firm featured in today's conversation. We will receive compensation when listeners

0:55.1

book a meeting with them. This creates a financial incentive for us to have them on the show

0:59.0

and partner with them, which you should consider when evaluating what you're here today.

1:02.2

So full disclosure of the arrangement is in the show notes of at biggerpocketsmoney.com.

1:07.4

Today, we're joined by C.J. Sturmitz and Toby Johnston from Equity for the Win, a flat fee

1:14.4

financial planning firm that specializes in equity compensation of the types that we're going to be

1:19.1

talking about today, concentrated equity positions, for example. Together, they've helped countless

1:23.2

employees navigate the opportunities and challenges that come with concentrated stock positions

1:27.9

in sudden wealth. So they're the perfect people to have on to discuss the topic today, and we're

1:32.5

excited about a partnership that we're entering into with Equity for the Win, as we just mentioned.

1:37.3

As a reminder, this episode, as always, is not investment advice and is for entertainment purposes

1:41.5

only. CJ and Toby, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. Yeah, thanks, Scott. Thanks, Mindy. Thank you. So can you give us a quick overview of what you guys do in your background and why we should listen to you about equity compensation and the intricacies of that? I guess I can go first. So I'm C.J. Sturmets. I am the founder of Equity for the Win or Equity FTW. I'm a certified

2:04.4

financial planner and certified equity professional. I've lived in Silicon Valley for almost

2:09.6

10 years and have been advising people in tech basically that entire time living in Silicon Valley.

2:16.4

Basically, every employee out here receives some form

2:19.1

of equity compensation and I don't know, live here long enough. You'll see a lot of things and

...

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