You just had a big RSU grant vest. Congratulations — and now the awkward part: a six-figure pile of your own company’s stock, a vague sense you should “do something,” and no one telling you what. The honest answer is that an advisor, a spreadsheet, and a piece of software each handle this differently. Below is what a modern money tool surfaces in a moment like this — using Ed (EdWealth) as a worked example — so you can decide what kind of help actually fits.
Step 1 — You link your accounts, read-only. You connect your brokerage and bank through read-only aggregation, so the tool can read balances but can’t move a dollar. Ed’s framing here is simple: precise about your money, blind to your identity.
Step 2 — The first screen isn’t a spending pie chart. Instead of categorizing your lattes, Ed opens on a single Reality Check — a read on whether your money could survive a bad month. For a lot of high earners, that one number lands harder than any budget, because it answers a question the other apps never ask.
Step 3 — It surfaces the tax gap most people miss. RSUs vest as ordinary income, and the standard flat 22% employer withholding is often well below a high earner’s real bracket — which quietly becomes a bill in April. Ed’s Tax Check-up surfaces that gap between the 22% standard and your actual bracket; your CPA fills in the exact number. (And if you also exercise ISOs, AMT is a known risk worth raising with that CPA — not something to guess at.)
Step 4 — It makes your concentration concrete. After a few years of vesting, it’s common to wake up with a huge share of your net worth in one stock. Ed shows your concentration percentage — the share sitting in a single position — and surfaces the question of a cap. When, or whether, to trim is your call; the value is seeing the risk clearly instead of discovering it by accident.
Step 5 — It puts resilience before returns. Rather than jumping to “what should I buy,” Ed surfaces a runway shortfall first — the months of expenses that keep a layoff from becoming a crisis — before any investing questions come up.
The part no other tool does. Here’s the real differentiator: before you connect anything, you can watch Ed’s own live account — unpaid, in public. Most fintech apps hide their numbers; Ed shows his. For a decision this size, “watch mine before you trust yours” is a very different starting point than a marketing page.
What it’s good at. The strength is the whole picture: cash, equity, tax exposure, and concentration on one screen, plus a tool that acknowledges what it can’t do rather than pretending certainty. What it’s not: it isn’t a robo-advisor that allocates for you, it isn’t a budgeting app, and it doesn’t replace your CPA on the exact numbers — it surfaces the questions and hands the precise math to a professional.
Who it’s for — and who should skip it. It fits high earners with equity and scattered accounts who want to see the whole thing in one place. If you just want spending categories, or a hands-off robo that allocates and never explains itself, this isn’t that.
How it compares. Versus a budgeting app, the difference is direction: those look backward at what you spent; this looks forward at what to weigh next. Versus a robo-advisor, a robo just allocates a portfolio, while Ed reasons across cash, tax, and concentration together. The closest honest analogy is a financial advisor’s first conversation — without the asset minimum.
The bottom line. For an RSU windfall, the value isn’t a magic answer; it’s seeing the whole board before you move. Run a free check-up, see your financial reality check, and watch Ed’s live book first. Ed is available on the App Store and Google Play.
Partner content, produced in partnership with EdWealth. Educational only — not financial or tax advice; for your exact numbers, see a CPA.
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