Reflecting on having Passed up Life-Changing Stock Grants

In 2022 I was feeling burnt out, unappreciated, and underpaid at Company B. It felt like the job market at the time was super hot and everyone was getting amazing offers, so I interviewed around and ended up getting 3 offers, two of which were from Nvidia and Meta.

Fast forward to today in 2025, the original RSU grants of those offers (1.4M and 1.2M) would have been now worth at least 11M and 6M respectively. Meaning basically I could have retired now if I had accepted either of those offers.

When I was in the process of deciding between these three job offers, I deliberated very deeply for at least a week. It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life. I ended up choosing an option that surprised some people around me – I decided to stay with my current company, which was willing to give me a retention bonus in exchange for me staying at least two more years.

The core of my decision was that I truly vibed with the mission of this company. Despite being underpaid relative to what I could have made on the market, I felt like there was nothing I could be doing that would have positively contributed to the world as much as what I was doing at that company. With hindsight I realize that I did deeply drink the kool-aid, but my conviction still hasn’t waned too much after leaving. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was actually changing the world, not just within its own walls of hype. That’s how I know (or at least how I reassure myself) that it wasn’t a completely stupid idea to give up (what now is) millions of dollars to continue to work on something that benefits humanity.

As has been said frequently before – staying for a retention bonus is usually a dumb decision. Something like 90% of people still leave within 1 year of accepting the bonus. Money is nice but it doesn’t solve all the other problems that led you to try to leave in the first place.

Do I regret not accepting one of these offers and having life-changing money now? I did end up leaving a couple years later and money was definitely one of the factors, but it wasn’t the most important one. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay employed in tech long enough to have built the foundation that will let me “start building the life I want now,” as is said in the FI community. Even if I were sitting on a giant pile of RSUs, I likely wouldn’t stop working. I might look into jobs that better align with what I value, regardless of what they paid – which is no different from what I have the ability to do now, even if I’m not at FI yet. :)