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Save money and increase your wealth by taking advantage of corporate benefits. Typical corporate benefits include 401(k), ESPP, health insurance & more.

Virtual vs In-Person Women’s Conferences: Which Is Right For You?

01.03.2023 by admin // Leave a Comment

attending an in person women's conference

Back in 2019, I wrote about why you should attend a women’s conference and a follow up post highlighting the Best Conferences for Women. I had attended these conferences in person for years and felt they really helped my career. But, there was very little information out there on how to make the most of attending a women’s conference. I wrote about my personal experiences and advice on getting the most out of attending these conferences. Then, in 2020, these conferences were cancelled for a few years. Starting in 2022, these conferences were back being offered in person and also virtual. I had the opportunity to attend the virtual Texas Conference for Women the last two years. Here’s my updated experience on attending both in person and virtual women’s conferences and why I recommend attending in person moving forward.

Benefits of Attending A Women’s Conference In General

The Main Stage and Breakout Session Speakers

Whether you decide to attend a women’s conference in person or virtually, you can expect a great selection of main stage speakers and breakouts. Every main stage speaker is so inspirational and has always motivated me to aim higher by the end.

The breakout sessions you attend give you more tangible knowledge on what to change to be more successful. Whether you attend in person or virtual doesn’t matter as much to learn from the breakout sessions.

Now that many conferences offer a virtual option, they also have replays available. If there were multiple breakout sessions you wanted to attend, you can now watch them after the conference.

Attending a Women’s Conference Improves Your Odds Of A Salary Increase

It turns out if you attend a women’s conference your odds of increasing your salary are higher and on average you’ll feel more optimistic about the future if you attend a women’s conference. Prior to the pandemic, the Harvard Business Review shared a study about 2,600 women that attended a women’s conference. They found that a year later there were positive outcomes with only 5% of women in the control group receiving a pay increase of more than 10% compared with the 15% of women who attended the conference. Hopefully another study is done that compares in person to virtual in the future.

Benefits of Attending A Women’s Conference In Person

Networking Opportunities With Other Women

Attending a women’s conference in person allows for great networking opportunities with coworkers, and other female leaders. Typically, there are a lot of women from the companies that are sponsoring the program, so it’s a great opportunity to network with other companies you may be interested in. Additionally, many companies have an employee referral program. If you make a strong enough connection, having that referral can increase your odds of landing that interview and will also help the referrer get a bonus.

Taking Advantage of the Freebies on the Exhibit Floor

One of my absolute favorite parts of the in person conference format is the exhibit floor. Prior to the pandemic the floor had a station for getting hair and makeup done for free and other stations for getting a professional photograph done for free. I am probably not the only person that is very ready for a new LinkedIn photo! Especially now that I am full time remote and haven’t worn a blazer since late 2019.

No Distractions

When you attend a women’s conference virtually, you don’t have your computer out. You put up an OOO and take advantage of being at the conference. Even though you may decide to connect with someone and skip a breakout session, you’re benefiting from networking. When you attend virtually though, you need your computer to attend the conference. Even if you put up the OOO message, your email is still right there. So are your IMs popping up on the right bottom corner of your screen. It’s harder to give your devoted attention to the conference. It’s much easier to say, there is a break during this time so I’ll take a meeting. Then, the meeting runs over or doesn’t line up perfectly to the break and you miss parts of the conference. It’s also easier to say you’ll take the meeting and watch a replay later.

Benefits of Attending a Women’s Conference Virtually

More Convenient to Attend A Conference Virtually

The virtual women’s conferences are much easier to attend. Don’t live near a city hosting a women’s conference? Now, you can join from your computer. You don’t have to worry about flying into another city to attend. Life is busy, and setting aside an entire day to go to a conference (or longer if you have to travel in!) is hard. Sometimes, the value of attending in person doesn’t outweigh the effort to do so. If the options are not attend at all, or attend part of the conference virtually it’s better to attend what you can virtually.

Cheaper to Attend Virtually

The tickets to the virtual conference are cheaper than the tickets to attend the conference in person. Because of this, companies can buy tickets for more employees than before and spend the same amount. If your company doesn’t offer tickets to a women’s conference, it is also more likely you can go to your boss and ask for a virtual ticket to be expensed.

Verdict: Attend the In Person Conference Women’s Conference If You Can

I attended an in person women’s conference for the majority of years the first decade of my career. In that time, I got promoted 4 times in 9 years. What I learned by attending these conferences around negotiation, leadership attributes and networking definitely helped me get those promotions. More recently, I have only attended the virtual conferences since the pandemic. During those virtual conferences, I am guilty of responding to IMs, jumping on calls when asked and not watching the replays following the conference. I didn’t make the most of the virtual option and also missed my favorite parts like running into people I haven’t seen in a while and the exhibit floor.

After spending the last two years attending women’s conferences remotely I’ve realized that I prefer the in person experience. I miss the only distractions being people you’ve met at the conference, building those relationships and discussing the sessions with other attendees immediately after. While I haven’t received a job offer from attending these conferences, seeing people in person helped strengthen relationships that resulted in career sponsorships. I also enjoy walking the exhibit floor and dedicating a full day to learning. It’s nice to not have to travel but for me I will look to attending in person again in the future.

Ultimately, whether attending a women’s conference virtually or in person depends on your personal goals and priorities. Your budget and availability will be key drivers in this decision. Have you attended a Women’s Conference in person and virtually? Did you prefer attending in person or virtually?

Maximizing Your 401(k) Contributions in 2023: The Benefits and How To Do It

12.28.2022 by admin // 4 Comments

A 401(k) plan is a retirement savings plan sponsored by employers that allows employees to contribute to their retirement savings pre-tax. If you can, you should always max out your 401(k) plan. The 401(k) contribution limit for 2023 is $22,500, an increase of $2,000 from 2022. 401(k) plans have many benefits including tax benefits, employee company match and accelerating funding your retirement. Maxing out your 401(k) every year, or contributing up to the contribution limit, enables you to take full advantage of all of these benefits. Even if you’re not sure how you’ll be able to afford contributing $22,500 to your 401(k) in 2023 there are steps you can take throughout the year to get closer to this goal.

When to Plan Your 401(k) Contributions

The beginning of the year is the best time to plan 401(k) contributions for the year. This way, you can spread out your contributions evenly throughout the year. The amount taken out per paycheck will be consistent that way. However, if you do hit the maximum amount early you’ll get a nice surprise of extra money in your take home pay at the end of the year as well as extra money taken out for taxes. If you wait until later in the year to plan your 401(k) contributions it may not be financially feasible. You’ll have to contribute more per paycheck to hit the max, or you may not earn enough the rest of the year to hit $22,500 in contributions. Don’t forget to check your 401(k) in the summer to ensure your contributions are on track to max out your 401(k) this year.

If you are short on cash this year, or are concerned about liquidity use these tips to get more cash quickly before you decide to cut your 401(k) contributions.

Make Sure To Always Get the Company 401(k) Match

Does your company automatically enroll you into their 401(k) plan? If not, make sure you sign up! Most companies that offer a 401(k) plan also offer a company match. At minimum, you should always contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the full company match. This is free money! The 401(k) company match is one of the top benefits of a 401(k) plan.

It’s hard when you first graduate college and starting from scratch- all the fees with the first apartment, first furniture buys, starting those student loan payments, etc. You may also have to save for bigger purchases like a house down payment and a car. It’s easy to feel like there is just no money to save for retirement.

Instead, look at how you are spending your money and find a way to contribute enough so you get the full company 401(k) match. After that, there are strategies to increase your contributions without feeling like you now have less money to spend over time.

Increase Your 401(k) Contributions During Raises and Promotions

Every time you get a raise or promotion you could afford to increase your 401(k) contribution more. Most companies have an annual raise cycle and if you’ve set your 401(k) contributions to a percentage of your salary your contributions will automatically increase when you get your raise. This time of year is also a great time to increase the percentage you contribute. You have already learned to live on your previous salary, do you desperately need that increase to buy more stuff? If you get a $5,000 raise you can increase your contributions by $1,000 a year and still have $4,000 of your raise. You won’t miss that last $1,000 while you’re adjusting to the extra $4,000 you are now earning every year. Using the table below, you can take the annual amount and divide it by the amount of paychecks per year to get the amount withheld out of each paycheck.

Increase Your 401(k) Contributions When You Finish Paying A Big Expense

Whether it’s putting down your first down payment, or paying off your last student loan, you now have one less expense. Reallocate what you would have spend on that expense to your 401(k) contributions. You won’t miss having the “extra” money because you didn’t have it before.

Enroll In The 401(k) Annual Increase Program

Some plans offer an annual increase program where you can establish annual increases. It depends on the plan, but at least some Fidelity plans allow 401(k) contributions to increase 1% or more each year automatically. You have the ability to align it to pay increases as well and then just set it and forget it. Automating 401(k) contribution increases is the easiest way to increase your contributions. If you end up needing more cash every paycheck you can always go online to your 401(k) plan provider website and reduce your contributions.

401(k) Tax Benefits

Have you ever done the math as to how much you’re saving in taxes by contributing to your 401(k)? You may think you can’t contribute anymore but don’t forget you’ll also save money on taxes.

If you contribute $22,500 to your 401(k) in 2023 here are the tax savings you can expect. These tax savings are based on the 2023 federal tax brackets. For example, you are single and making $205,000 a year you’ll avoid $7,200 in federal income taxes. Contributing the maximum amount to your 401(k) through pre-tax contributions really helps you save a decent amount of money every year.

The additional 1% contribution assumes the mean of the income bracket.

401k contributions in 2023 tax savings for single filers — 401k Contributions in 2023 Tax Savings for Single Filers

401k contributions in 2023 tax savings for married filing jointly filers — 401k Contributions in 2023 Tax Savings for Married Filing Jointly Filers

401(k) Benefits Include Compound Interest

If you need a little more motivation to max out your 401(k) don’t forget about compound interest. The hardest time to contribute to your 401(k) is when you’re young. When you’re young, you have a lot of big expenses on the horizon and a starter income. But, thanks to compounding, the more you save early on the less you’ll need to save later. Take this example from the team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in their 2014 “Guide to Retirement.” Here, they share how much money you can make from investing $5,000 a year over time depending on when you start.

Compounding interest graph showing how much you will make from investing $50,000 over time. — Example of Compounding from J.P. Morgan Asset Management 2014 Guide to Retirement

Don’t forget, a 401(k) is one of several options to save for retirement. After you’ve hit your employee match in your 401(k) plan, it’s good to start contributing to your Roth IRA account. This way, you can fully optimize the tax benefits in your retirement savings strategy. Then, contribute the rest to max your 401(k) contributions.

Understanding RSUs: A Guide to Restricted Stock Unit Compensation

08.24.2020 by admin // 1 Comment

what are RSUs? Definition of RSUs. Restricted Stock Units, why you need RSUs in your comp package, typical RSU package, rsu compensation

Restricted Stock Unit compensation (RSUs) is a popular way of giving company equity to employees at tech startups and large public companies. When you hear about how much money people at tech companies make it’s often because they have equity as part of their compensation package. When looking at your compensation package don’t just look at the salary. Also understand what your benefits are worth including your RSU package. Often we look at benefits like health insurance and retirement options like the 401(k) company match. But, what about equity compensation? Equity compensation is a perk companies use to give you an ownership stake in the company. This includes RSUs, ESPP and employee stock options.

If you don’t have RSU compensation today, you are missing out. If your company offers RSU packages as one of their benefits, negotiate for RSU compensation during your next merit raise cycle or during your next promotion. Or, apply to companies that offer Restricted Stock Units as part of their compensation package. Learn below what RSUs are, what RSUs are worth to you, when you get RSUs, RSU tax considerations and the drawbacks of RSUs.

What Are RSUs or Restricted Stock Units?

RSUs, or Restricted Stock Units, are a form of compensation offered by employers to employees. They are company shares that are restricted, meaning that you can’t sell them right away. Instead, you will be given shares that vest over time. When you accept RSUs, they will come with a vesting schedule. Often, you’ll see vesting schedules that span 3+ years. This schedule will show how many shares will vest on which dates. Typically, there will be one day per year and each of those days will be a year apart. On that date you are given those shares at the price of the stock that day. They have no tangible value until the vesting date. If you leave the company before the vesting date that means you walk away from this future compensation.

What Is RSU Compensation Worth to You?

The value of your RSU package depend on a few things: the number of shares offered, how well the stock is projected to do and the vesting schedule.

How Much Are Your RSUs Are Worth When Granted?

To understand the current dollar amount of your restricted stock options multiply the number of RSUs by the stock price the day it is granted. When considering a job offer with RSUs, they may provide a dollar amount for RSUs. If you are provided a dollar amount, that means your RSU package will originally be worth that amount no matter what the stock price is. The day the RSU package is granted, you’ll know how many shares equate to that dollar amount.

How Well Do You Think The Stock Will Perform?

Consider how well you think the stock will perform during your vesting schedule. Is it a growth stock or value stock? Here, I’ll compare a growth stock (Amazon) to a value stock (Cisco). On January 1, 2019 Amazon stock was worth $1718.73. In comparison, Cisco was trading at $47.29. On August 21, 2020 Amazon traded at $3,284.72 a share and Cisco traded at $42.25 a share. That is a huge difference! If you had accepted a job offer at Amazon your RSUs are worth almost double! If you accepted the job offer at Cisco your RSUs actually decreased in value. Even with the quarterly dividend of $0.35 a share, your RSUs are still worth less. Note, this is one example of past results, and this doesn’t mean either of these stocks will perform similarly in the future.

When comparing compensation packages at two companies, don’t only look at what the RSU package is worth at that moment in time. Consider how you think the stock will perform over the next few years. The lower RSU package may end up being worth more money.

Amount of Time For All Of Your RSUs to Vest

Know how long it will take for your RSUs to fully vest. How long do you have to stay with the company to get the full RSU package? Do you intend to stay with the company for that amount of time?

When Do You Get Restricted Stock Units?

Typically companies offer RSUs at time of employment. Other opportunities to get RSUs include promotions. Similar to annual merit increases, some companies have annual equity awards. Once a year they give RSUs out to select employees. If you’re unsure if your company offers RSUs, go to your internal benefits page and see if it’s one of the benefits listed. You can also ask your manager or HR business partner. When you’re talking to them, ask them the criteria for getting RSUs. It can never hurt to ask.

Do I get RSU Money Right Away?

Usually you don’t get RSU money right away. RSUs typically have a vesting period. A vesting period is a period of time before the shares are owned by the employee. If you leave the company before the end of the vesting period you’ll walk away from those shares.

Cliff Vesting – after a certain amount of time has passed you will receive 100% of the shares all at once. For example, say you are granted 30 shares. 3 years later you get 30 shares all at once. The date you get all of your shares depends on what is in your RSU agreement.

Graded Vesting – you will receive smaller chunks of your RSUs more frequently. For example, say you are granted 30 shares in January 2021. In graded vesting you could get 10 shares in January 2022, 10 shares in January 2023 and 10 shares in January 2024. The dates you receive the small chunks of RSUs depend on what is in your RSU agreement.

Hybrid of Cliff and Graded Vesting – You receive a certain amount at once, and then smaller amounts at regular intervals following that. The dates you receive a certain amount all at once and the dates following depend on what is in your RSU agreement.

How are RSUs Taxed?

RSUs will not be taxed when you first receive them. But, they will be taxed upon vesting. This is because you were given RSUs at $0 and they converted to the value of the company stock when they vest. Even if the stock goes down the very next day, you will be taxed at the total fair market value of your stock grant on the grant date.

When you sell your RSUs your taxes will be calculated based on the strike price. The strike price is the price of the shares when they become vested. Upon vesting, this is when you get to decide if you want to keep the shares or sell them. Whether you decide to keep or sell the shares, you will get taxed upon the shares vesting.

To avoid getting hit with a huge tax bill your company may have an option to sell RSUs at time of vesting to cover taxes. Additional tax withholding options include same day, net shares settlement, sell to cover and cash.

RSU compensation, RSU package, RSU taxes at RSU grant, RSU vest and RSU Sale, rsu package

What Happens if my RSUs go Down in Price After They Vest?

If RSUs go down in price after they vest they will be treated like any other stock that is currently showing a loss. Nothing will actually happen until you sell and the price can continue to go up or down. If you sell at a price that’s below the RSU stock price it will be considered either a short term or long term loss on your taxes pending when you sell.

Do I Have to do Anything When I Get Confirmation I was Awarded RSUs?

Sometimes you do have to do take an action when you get confirmation that you were awarded RSUs. Just because you’ve been told you are getting RSUs doesn’t mean there are no actions on your part. Sometimes you need to accept the RSUs by a certain date or you actually won’t get them! The written confirmation that you get awarding you RSUs should detail out any instructions or next steps you have to take. Make sure you read this written confirmation thoroughly. When you accept the RSUs make sure you know what you are signing, it’s not only about making sure you click accept. Sometimes what you are signing contains a non-compete.

What Are The Drawbacks of RSU Compensation Packages?

Non-Compete Clauses

When you are accepting your Restricted Stock Unit grant, do you know what you are signing? You may be signing a non-compete. If you’ve already signed a non-compete for your employer this agreement may be nothing new. Be aware of what you are signing before you sign. After you sign print a copy for your records in case it’s hard to find after the fact.

Leaving the Company

Restricted Stock Units are designed to incentivize employees to stay at a company. Of course, you can still give your notice that you’re leaving at any time when you have unvested RSUs. However, you’re now putting in notice knowing that you’re leaving money on the table. With vesting, you won’t get the full amount of your award until the vesting schedule is complete (usually 3-4 years). If you get RSU awards every year, that can quickly grow to a sizable amount you’re walking away from. If you leave the company you will forfeit your unvested shares. Any shares that have vested that you haven’t yet sold you will continue to keep.

If you are looking to leave your company, don’t forget to negotiate the amount of unvested RSUs you’d be leaving on the table as part of your negotiation for your new compensation package.

High Risk, High Reward at Startups

Early stage or start-up companies (pre-funding or even after series A) tend to have the valuation of shares as quite low. The opportunity for appreciation is the highest, but there is also a chance your RSUs end up being worth $0.

Ability to Sell RSU Shares Once They Vest

If you work for a publicly traded company you should be able to sell your shares upon the RSUs vesting. If your company is private though, they may have restrictions on when you can sell the equity you’ve been awarded at the company. When you are awarded RSUs, read the terms and what the terms outline for selling vested shares to avoid any surprises.

For quick answers to all Frequently Asked Questions about Restricted Stock Units Fidelity has a FAQ guide that is pretty helpful.