Your SpaceX Equity Is a Once-in-a-Career Event.
Do You Have a Plan?
With a $1.75 trillion IPO on the horizon, SpaceX employees holding RSUs, ISOs, and stock options face the most complex financial decisions of their lives. The employees who plan now will keep significantly more.
Book a No-Obligation CallCommon Challenges
Sound Familiar?
These are the questions SpaceX employees bring to us every week. If any of them resonate, you are not alone.
I don't know what my SpaceX equity is actually worth after taxes
The headline number on your grant letter is not what you will keep. Federal taxes at 37%, California at 13.3%, and AMT exposure can cut your take-home in half before you can sell a single share.
I will owe taxes on shares I cannot sell for 180 days
The IPO lock-up period is the single most dangerous gap in the process. If RSUs accelerate at IPO, you owe taxes immediately but you cannot sell for six months. Without a cash reserve, this becomes a liquidity crisis.
Exercising my ISOs could trigger an AMT bill I was not expecting
At SpaceX's current valuations, the AMT exposure from exercising ISOs can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is the most common and most costly mistake SpaceX employees make.
I moved out of California but I am not sure I escaped the taxes
Moving to Texas or Florida does not automatically eliminate California's claim on equity that vested while you were a California resident. California sources income based on where the services were performed.
I know I should diversify but I believe in SpaceX long-term
You can hold a long-term view on SpaceX and still protect yourself from a 40% drawdown. The right hedging and phased diversification strategy lets you do both.
My advisor does not understand equity compensation
They ran a risk tolerance questionnaire and gave you the same model portfolio as everyone else. No tax strategy, no IPO planning, no equity comp expertise. You need something built for this moment.
Your SpaceX Benefits
We Know Your SpaceX Equity Inside and Out
We work with SpaceX employees and understand the details of each equity type, along with the specific planning actions each one requires before and after the IPO.
SpaceX RSUs typically vest on a 3 or 5 year schedule. A critical detail: most are single-trigger, meaning they vest based on continued employment, not on the IPO. You may owe ordinary income tax at vesting even if you cannot yet sell shares.
ISOs can offer favorable long-term capital gains treatment if you meet the holding requirements: at least one year after exercise and two years after the grant date. This can be a significant advantage, but exercising triggers the Alternative Minimum Tax.
NQSOs are taxed as ordinary income at exercise based on the spread between the stock price and your strike price. SpaceX typically uses a 6-year vesting schedule with a 2-year cliff followed by monthly vesting.
SpaceX's ESPP offers a 15% discount on the purchase price. Tax treatment depends on whether you hold shares long enough for a qualifying disposition, which receives more favorable tax treatment.
IPO Planning Roadmap
What to Do and When
The window between now and the IPO is your highest-leverage planning period. Each phase has specific actions that cannot be reversed once the moment passes.
Before the IPO: Map Your Full Equity Inventory
List every RSU grant, ISO grant, NQSO grant, and ESPP holding. Note vesting dates, grant prices, current estimated values, and holding periods. For ISOs, note your AMT basis and any AMT credits you carry forward. Model your tax exposure at multiple price points, such as $150, $200, and $300 per share, so nothing surprises you.
Before the IPO: Build Your Cash Reserve
You will owe taxes before you can sell shares. For many SpaceX employees, this bill will be six figures or more. Start building that cash reserve now. Consider whether participating in the next tender offer makes sense specifically to fund this tax liability.
Before the IPO: Establish Your Post-Lock-Up Selling Plan
Decide now, before the emotions of a live stock price cloud your judgment. What percentage of your SpaceX position will you sell in the first 30 days after lock-up? Write this plan down and commit to it before the IPO date. A disciplined selling plan prevents panic-selling at a temporary low and holding everything through a 40% drawdown.
During Lock-Up: Explore Hedging Strategies
A cashless collar sets a floor below which the stock cannot hurt you and a ceiling where you cap some upside. No cash out of pocket, no shares sold, no taxes triggered. This is standard practice in institutional wealth management and is available to SpaceX employees as well.
During Lock-Up: Consider Securities-Based Lending
If you need cash during lock-up for a home purchase, college tuition, or other major expenses, securities-based lending lets you borrow against your shares without selling and without triggering taxes. Interest rates are typically comparable to a mortgage.
After Lock-Up: Execute Your Plan Without Renegotiating
The number one mistake is making a plan to sell 40% of your position, then watching the stock climb 20% since IPO and deciding to wait. That is how concentration risk compounds. Execute the plan you made when you were thinking clearly. A phased approach over 12 to 18 months reduces timing risk and spreads the tax impact across calendar years.
Advanced Planning
Strategies Your Current Advisor Probably Has Not Mentioned
We go beyond sell and diversify. These are the tools that make a real difference for SpaceX employees facing concentrated stock and complex tax situations.
Cashless Collars for Downside Protection
If you are bullish on SpaceX long-term but cannot afford a 40% drawdown, a collar sets a floor below which the stock cannot hurt you and a ceiling where you cap some upside. No cash out of pocket. No shares sold. No taxes triggered. You stay invested while sleeping at night.
Protects without sellingSecurities-Based Lending for Liquidity
Need cash for a home down payment or college tuition before lock-up expires? Borrow against your SpaceX holdings at rates comparable to a mortgage. No shares sold. No capital gains triggered. You get the cash now and defer the tax event to a lower-income year.
Cash without sellingISO Exercise Timing Before IPO
Exercising ISOs before the IPO at a lower 409A valuation may reduce your AMT exposure significantly. But it requires capital and creates risk if the IPO is delayed. This decision requires professional modeling with a financial advisor and CPA working together before you act.
Reduces AMT exposureTax-Efficient Phased Diversification
Instead of selling everything at once, we spread sales across tax years to keep you in lower brackets. Direct indexing can layer in additional tax-loss harvesting against your SpaceX gains. This can save tens of thousands compared to a simple sale.
Reduces tax dragCalifornia Sourcing Analysis for Relocators
If you vested equity while living in California but have since moved, California may still tax a portion of that income. We model the California sourcing rules for each grant based on your residency history, before you file and not after.
Avoids surprise state taxesCoordinated CPA and Advisor Planning
The year of the IPO and the year after will be the most complex tax years of your life. RSU income, ISO exercises, AMT credits, ESPP sales, capital gains, and California sourcing issues all arrive at once. We coordinate quarterly with your CPA so nothing falls through the cracks.
Integrated planningWhat to Avoid
The Four Decisions That Will Cost You the Most
These are the mistakes that erode SpaceX wealth, and every one of them is avoidable with early planning.
🚫 Exercising ISOs without modeling AMT
At SpaceX's current valuations, the AMT bill can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Model before you act. This is not optional.
🚫 Not having cash for taxes at vesting
If RSUs accelerate at IPO and you owe $300,000+ in taxes but cannot sell for 180 days, you have a liquidity crisis. Plan for this now, not the week before the IPO.
🚫 Holding 80%+ of your net worth in SpaceX after lock-up
You can believe in SpaceX and still diversify. Large endowments never hold more than 5% in any single position. Your family deserves the same discipline.
🚫 Ignoring California tax sourcing after relocating
Moving to Texas does not eliminate your California tax liability on equity that vested while you were a California resident. Get this modeled before you file.
In Practice
What This Looks Like in Practice
Anonymized Client Case Study
A senior SpaceX engineer with $4M+ in equity, two kids heading to college, and a retirement target 5 years away.
She had been with the company for 7 years. Her equity had appreciated significantly in secondary market rounds, but 68% of her net worth was tied to a single illiquid position. She needed $350,000 for college tuition over the next 4 years. Her previous advisor had her in a model portfolio with no IPO tax strategy and no plan for the coming liquidity event.
Here is what we built together:
We mapped every grant in her equity inventory, including RSUs, ISOs, and NQSOs, and modeled her AMT exposure at three different IPO price points.
We identified exercisable ISOs at a low strike price and modeled a partial pre-IPO exercise strategy to reduce her AMT basis and lock in long-term capital gains treatment.
We used securities-based lending to fund Year 1 of college tuition without selling shares or triggering taxes.
We built a phased post-lock-up diversification plan, selling a predetermined percentage each quarter coordinated with her vesting calendar to stay in the lowest possible tax brackets.
We coordinated quarterly with her CPA, documented her California residency history for sourcing purposes, and built a cash reserve to cover the IPO tax bill before lock-up expired.
Your Advisor
Meet Roshani Pandey
I started my career at Goldman Sachs and later worked at BlackRock advising families whose wealth had lasted for seven or eight generations. I saw what well-structured wealth looks like. The disciplined risk management, the proactive tax planning, the integrated systems where everything works together.
I founded True Root Financial to bring that same institutional-level strategy to tech professionals who are building wealth in real time. Not inheriting it. SpaceX employees are standing at one of the most significant wealth events of their generation. The planning decisions made in the next twelve months will define how much of that wealth they actually keep.
- Risk reduction without disruption. Diversify thoughtfully, not reactively.
- Tax awareness as a core discipline. Taxes are central to every strategy.
- Integrated simplicity. Equity, investments, estate, and life transitions working together.
Why Clients Choose True Root
What Our Clients Tell Us
What tech professionals say about working with True Root Financial.
We bring you ideas
"The reason I work with you is that you bring me ideas I would not have found on my own. With my last advisor, every idea came from me."
We know you personally
"You really know us. The solutions are designed for us, not everyone. It is not a cookie-cutter approach."
We work with both partners
Financial decisions affect both partners. We engage both voices in every meeting because the best plans are built together.
Ready to See What Proactive Planning Looks Like?
Book a no-obligation conversation. We will map your full SpaceX equity picture, model your tax scenarios, and show you what a real plan actually looks like. No pitch. Just clarity.
Book a Free Consultation Or call us at (415) 323-6602True Root Financial is a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor based in San Francisco, CA. We serve SpaceX employees and tech professionals in the Bay Area and across the country. We do not sell products or earn commissions. Our only compensation is the fee you pay us directly.
True Root Financial is not affiliated with SpaceX or the SpaceX benefits department. True Root Financial has financial planning relationships with clients who are SpaceX employees.
