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- TC&MN #22 Redefine your tech career with these 4 essential steps to W2 freedom (find out how the third step can transform your life)
TC&MN #22 Redefine your tech career with these 4 essential steps to W2 freedom (find out how the third step can transform your life)
Create a Career Plan to Build Skills to Expertise
Christopher Nelson
April 16, 2024
👋 Good Afternoon. Welcome to this week's edition of Tech Career & Money News, your trusted source of news, resources and insights for financially focused technology employees.
The Four Pillars to Financial Freedom for Tech Employees, I lay out the framework that has worked for me and others. Also check out our latest podcast with Mark Herschberg, learn to create a Career Plan.
Four Pillars to W2 Freedom for Techies
How do you leverage equity in tech as a strategy for building wealth, accelerating financial freedom, and achieving the life you desire?
If you're not asking this question already, it's time to start.
Working in tech, you're at the forefront of innovation, shaping the future daily.
When you trade your time and talent for equity in tech roles, you can make more money than the previous generations, often surpassing our expectations and enabling a lifestyle once unimaginable.
Yet, this comes at a significant cost:
Endless work hours blending into personal life
Sacrificed time with family and friends
Declining physical health
Imminent burnout
However, many tech professionals believe there is a way to transform their earnings into true autonomy—a life where you own your time.
The question I constantly get asked is:
How do I transition from the relentless corporate grind to the freedom of controlling my schedule?
Through my decade-long personal experiment and research, I've discovered that this is not only possible for myself, but I have started educating others to do the same. Here is what I have found.
The Four Building Blocks to W2 Freedom for Tech Employees
Four crucial building blocks are required for this process to work well. These are not mere steps but interconnected skills and processes essential for reaching your personal exit. Each can be mastered with practice.
The Four Building Blocks:
1. Expertise: Master Your Craft; Become a Thought Leader
Your expertise is the asset you build through work, skill development, experiences, and delivered results. Your skills are an asset that grows in value over time as you enhance and expand your career. It’s your most valuable resource and demands a dedicated growth plan.
Your goal is to develop your skills into expertise to build a brand and business around them.
Utilize corporate opportunities to build your skills. Apply these skills to make impactful contributions and deliver your value. This will position you as invaluable, but you must also be ready to articulate your worth at a moment's notice.
You can earn what you are worth if you know and describe your value.
Takeaway: Your acquired skills, from both inside and outside corporate settings, form the bedrock of your earning potential when you trade for equity. They position you as a rare and valuable professional, both for salary negotiation and especially for equity opportunities. Post W-2 world, this expertise allows you to create a lifestyle business that allows you to stay engaged and help others learn what you know.
Invest in your greatest asset—yourself.
Go Deeper:
2. Equity: Always Trade Time for Tech Equity
Always trade for equity as a W-2 Employee, Advisor and Board Member. Equity allows you to compound your career compensation over time. You are an employee and an owner in tech where you share in the upside of the companies you are building.
Leverage high skill to negotiate for equity compensation in highly valuable and liquid companies.
Learn to think like an investor with your time and talent.
This skill of analyzing investment opportunities of your time will serve you well in managing your personal finances too. There is a lot of crossover between investing your time and your money.
Takeaway: Equity is pivotal in compounding your career compensation, enabling you to earn more in less time. Practice and master the skill of investing your time and talent in the best companies (liquid and growing) for large equity positions to accelerate your financial independence.
Go Deeper:
3. Evergreen Portfolio: Manage Your Personal Portfolio as a Business
While your expertise and equity can free you from corporate constraints, maintaining that freedom requires a business and your portfolio. This step, often outsourced and thus a point of failure for many, involves creating a diversified portfolio managed by you and a team of professionals you trust.
A diversified portfolio of traditional and private equity investments managed like a business can improve the lives of multiple generations.
This strategy mirrors what the ultra-wealthy do—they maintain portfolios comprising traditional and private equity investments that generate sufficient income to cover daily expenses and continue to grow. They involve the new generations in running and operating it.
Takeaway: Escape the corporate world by building your portfolio as a business beyond your day job. This portfolio, where you act as CEO, will be your vehicle to enduring financial security and something to be passed on to the next generation.
Go Deeper:
4. Exit Plan: Designing Your Future Beyond the Corporate World
"Begin with the end in mind," a principle taught by Stephen Covey in "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," is crucial in planning your departure from the corporate scene.
An Exit Plan lays out a comprehensive plan to graduate to the next level.
This plan is not just a list of goals but a comprehensive strategy that includes developing the necessary skills, seeking appropriate equity opportunities, and building your portfolio according to your personal and financial aspirations./
Takeaway: Your exit plan integrates the other three steps, guiding you from full-time employment to achieving your ideal lifestyle. Treat it as a dynamic blueprint that adapts and evolves with your goals.
The Path Forward
This framework isn't merely theoretical; it's a tested pathway to transform tech equity into a tool for achieving freedom.
By mastering these building blocks, tech professionals can not only escape the corporate grind but also build a fulfilling and sustainable post-corporate life.
Start today by evaluating where you stand in each of these areas and make your plan to leverage tech equity for a brighter future.
Though challenging, this journey is shared with many others who seek similar changes
As always, thank you for tuning in and reading.
Your engagement and feedback are what drives this community.
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Which of the Four Pillars Do You Want to Learn More About?Where are you finding challenge getting traction and where do you need to get unstuck? |
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What does a career plan look like? How do you build one?
If you have this question, you need to listen to my interview with Mark Herschberg, who wrote the book on it.
His book The Career Toolkit - Breaks down the tools you need to plan your career in tech. Check out our conversation.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or career advice. Always consult with qualified professionals before making any decisions based on the information provided.