The RSU Tax Mistake Costing Engineers $200,000 (And How to Fix It)

If your company pays you in RSUs, you may be sitting on a tax bill you don't even know about — and engineers routinely lose $50,000, $100,000, even $200,000 in unnecessary taxes because of one avoidable mistake with their stock compensation. The problem usually isn't bad investing. It's the absence of a tax strategy around equity comp — and it compounds quietly over a full career. Patrick Hammond, Senior Wealth Advisor and Founder of Guardian Financial Services, breaks down the RSU tax mistake he sees engineers make over and over: what it is, why it happens, what it actually costs, and the framework to fix it — including why holding vested shares quietly stacks two tax events on the same asset, and why RSU planning and retirement planning can't be separate conversations. What you'll learn: • Why RSUs are taxed as ordinary income the moment they vest — not when you sell • How holding vested shares can mean paying tax twice on the same compensation • A real-numbers breakdown of the tax drag on a typical engineer's RSUs • How RSU sales, 401(k) withdrawals, and Social Security can collide in retirement (and trigger IRMAA) • A 5-step framework: vesting schedule, sell discipline, income coordination, Roth conversions, and modeling before you retire. 🔔 Subscribe for retirement and tax planning content built specifically for engineers and high-income professionals. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 — The Tax Bill Engineers Don't Know They Have 0:55 — Meet Patrick Hammond 1:30 — What RSUs Actually Are 2:45 — Why Vesting Is a Taxable Event 3:45 — The Mistake: Just Holding the Shares 5:00 — Taxed Twice on the Same Asset 5:45 — The Math: A Real-Numbers Breakdown 7:15 — Why It Gets Worse Near Retirement (IRMAA) 8:45 — The 5-Step RSU Framework 11:00 — The Real Truth About RSUs 12:15 — How to Get Your Numbers Looked At CSP - 1086157