$3.8M in shares and a lazy balance sheet

Picture this.

A VP at a global tech company. Mid 40s. Household income well over $700K.

$3M in vested shares. $800K more, still unvested. A $4M home. No mortgage.

By every measure, he had made it.

But he sat down with me and asked one thing.

“All my wealth is in one stock. What should I do to diversify?”

Here’s what I found. Every asset was sitting still. No tax deductions. No leverage. Nothing turning wealth into income.

I call it a lazy balance sheet.

You might see yourself in this. A big share balance. A home paid down or close to it. A salary still paying for everything.

Wealth on paper is not income.

Here is what we built

A $2M investment loan against his home equity. The interest is tax deductible.

It seeds a diversified portfolio of Australian and international ETFs. We invest into it over the years, and we can buy more when markets correct.

A well built share portfolio can roughly double every 7 years. $2M becomes $4M. $4M becomes $8M. $8M becomes $16M.

No extra saving required. Just time and structure.

Then we tackled the shares

We sold down $1.5M of his employer shares. That took real risk off the table.

A planned sell down over the next 3 years follows. Timed with tax in mind. Not dumped in one hit.

And $500K set aside for each child at 25.

The result

$25,000 a month in retirement income. Starting in his mid 50s.

Same assets. Now they work for him.

If you hold a big share balance, ask yourself one thing. Is it working for you, or just sitting there?

Read the full case study, or check yours with the free Lazy Balance Sheet Scorecard.