u/DoggieBu

Classic HENRY situation with a twist. 41, California.

Net worth ~$1.25M after all liabilities:
💰 Cash: ~$245K in HYSA (recent, deliberately holding liquid)
📈 401(k): ~$350K (maxing)
🏦 Roth IRA: ~$9K (backdoor starting now)
🏠 Home equity: ~$525K (renovated, Zestimate lags — sub-3% fixed mortgage, not in a hurry to pay down)
₿ BTC: ~$175K self-custody, ~3x cost basis, LT hold

Sitting entirely outside that: mid-seven figures in pre-IPO equity: vested common + options at last known FMV. ~50 cents on the dollar after fed + CA ordinary income treatment. Single company, no IPO timeline.

The equity is the variable that either changes everything or doesn’t.

Three questions:

1. Does the equity change how hard I should be pushing 401k and Roth, or just keep maxing regardless?

2. $245K in HYSA seems like too much to keep it there. Deploy into indexes, hold as a liquidity hedge against the equity concentration, or something else?

3. How are others with significant illiquid pre-IPO equity actually modeling it in their planning? haircut, probability-weighted, or ignore it entirely?

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