You’ve excelled in your career as a tech professional, and your compensation is progressing—it’s exciting to see all the things you can do with your paycheck! While you’re living comfortably on a competitive salary, you know there are things you could do to optimize your income.
You might be asking yourself,
- Are you financially on track to pursue a career change?
- Can you fund a work-optional lifestyle?
- Given your large concentration of equity, are you making the most of your tax opportunities?
As your financial life grows in complexity, you could wonder if managing your money on your own makes sense anymore or if it’s time to turn to a professional.
As a tech employee turned financial advisor, I’ve seen firsthand the impact professional planning has on helping people use their money in fulfilling ways that resonate with their goals and values.
To help determine if it’s time to call a professional, I’ve identified five reasons tech employees benefit from working with a financial planner.
Reason #1: Streamlining Your Finances
The tech industry is known for offering diverse (and complex) compensation packages. As a tech professional, you likely have several sources of income, including salary, bonuses, stock options, and more.
While compensation packages are often lucrative in the tech field, they complicate things, and having multiple income streams is a balancing act. If most of your wealth lies within your equity compensation, your personal wealth becomes directly tied to one company’s performance. If bonuses vary on profits or performance, it can be hard to rely on them as steady income.
You want to make the most of your compensation, and a planner can help. Working with a professional to organize and streamline your money is an effective way to address your financial needs today while aligning your finances with your longer-term goals.
Reason #2: Building Confidence and Security With Your Money
Unfortunately, money doesn’t come with a guidebook. But the more you earn, the more impactful your decisions become.
You want to know you’re on the right path and doing the right things with your income. But money, no matter how much you make, can be complicated. Finance is an intimidating world full of confusing jargon—much like the tech world if you think about it. That’s why working with a trusted planner is often a necessary step in optimizing your financial life.
A planner acts as your guide through the complex world of finances and investments. They can help outline your options, build a strategy that suits your lifestyle, get you excited about what you can accomplish, and reduce stress caused by uncertainty.
Reason #3: Identifying Your Short and Long-Term Goals
Like most things in life, fulfillment comes from setting and reaching our goals, like getting a promotion at work, achieving a fitness milestone, or learning a new language. Goals give us motivation and a sense of accomplishment.
With that in mind, it makes perfect sense why goals are a vital player in feeling financially confident and fulfilled. But many people don’t take the time to set financial goals on their own. For example, everyone wants to be prepared for retirement, but that’s not specific enough to really get you motivated or excited to start saving.
Think about it like this,
- What are you excited to pursue?
- If money weren’t an object, what would you do?
- Where do you find joy and excitement?
A planner helps refine your vision and build out short- and long-term goals that get you excited about what your money can do. From buying a home to paying for a child’s education to taking a sabbatical from work, your goals should serve as the foundation of your savings strategy.
Reason #4: Ironing Out Wrinkles and Worries
Navigating the ups and downs of the economy on your own is intimidating. Things like Covid-19 or geopolitical conflict cause the markets to wobble, and investors have experienced quite a bit of that over the last several years.
Worried investors tend to make rash decisions based on what they hear in the news, read online, or talk about in the break room. Instead of focusing on their personal economies and long-term outlook, they’re distracted by short-term downturns.
The markets aside, tech professionals must make so many financial decisions for themselves and their families. Optimizing their tax returns, which retirement accounts to utilize, paying down debt in the most effective manner—the list goes on and on. It’s nice to know you have a professional on your team who can help navigate choppy waters and answer questions as they arise.
Reason #5: Getting Your Time Back
It’s absolutely possible to manage your money all on your own. But there are significant benefits to outsourcing to a financial professional.
A planner can offer advice as it pertains to your unique financial situation. By comparison, information found online or in books is created for the masses, meaning it won’t be tailored to you or address your specific goals.
With that in mind, one of the greatest benefits of outsourcing financial planning is the time you get back in your day. Leaving the strategizing and maintenance up to a professional brings you peace of mind and the ability to focus on things you’re passionate about, like hobbies, travel, or spending time with family.
Financial Planning with Brightview
As a financial planner, I’m here to help tech professionals build confidence, simplify complex concerns, think long-term, and put time back into their day.
Whether you’re still considering the value of a planner or interested in getting started, don’t hesitate to reach out anytime.