Your equity is a plan, not a bonus

Employers commonly withhold federal tax on vesting RSUs at the 22% supplemental wage rate. If your total household income puts you in the 32% or 37% bracket, that withholding falls short of what you owe, and the difference appears when you file. State tax and the additional Medicare tax can widen the gap further. The fix is knowing the number early enough to adjust withholding or make an estimated payment.

Selling at vest is worth considering because RSUs are taxed as ordinary income on the vest date regardless of what you do next, so holding is a separate investment decision from the compensation itself. Ask yourself whether you would buy that stock with a cash bonus of the same size. The right answer depends on how concentrated you already are and what the proceeds would fund, which is exactly what we work through together.

Incentive stock options can receive favorable long-term capital gains treatment if you meet holding requirements, but exercising them may create alternative minimum tax exposure in the year of exercise. Non-qualified stock options create ordinary income on the spread at exercise, withheld like wages. The planning differs enough that the two should never be handled with the same default.

There is no universal number, and anyone who gives you one without knowing your situation is guessing. The useful frame is that your salary, bonus, equity, and often your health insurance already depend on one employer. Concentration in the stock stacks another layer of the same risk. Many people land somewhere between 10% and 20% of net worth once they see it laid out.