Fiction and education, not advice. See our Disclaimer.
This is fiction. Taylor Kim is a made-up long-time Tesla employee. We do not know, and are not using, real Tesla compensation, bands, or RSU grants. The salary, vesting, and account balances below are invented, labeled as such, and used only to talk about concentration risk in educational language. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold Tesla stock or any fund.
Taylor is 41, lives in the Bay Area (rent, not a purchase — the down payment kept losing to “the stock might go up”), and has been at the company long enough that refreshers and a couple of good vesting years turned into a net worth that is mostly one ticker. That is the story. It is a common tech-worker plot. It is also how people get their stomachs handed to them.
Invented compensation snapshot (not real Tesla numbers)
| Item | Fictional figure |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $195,000 |
| August take-home (after 401(k), tax, benefits) | $9,420 |
| RSU vest this month (gross, made-up share count × a made-up price) | $14,800 |
| Withheld for tax on the vest (approx.) | −$3,256 |
| Net shares / cash leftover from vest, still in employer stock | ~$11,544 |
Again: those figures are props. Real grants, prices, and withholding vary wildly by level, location, and year. Do not reverse-engineer a band from a blog character.
August 2026 cash flow (fictional)
| Category | In | Out |
|---|---|---|
| Paycheck take-home (2 pays) | $9,420 | |
| Rent + utilities | $3,650 | |
| Food, gas, transit, life | $1,280 | |
| Automatic taxable index-fund draft | $1,000 | |
| Extra 401(k) already out of gross | (in take-home) | |
| Student loan leftover (refi, fictional) | $220 | |
| Net to checking | +$3,270 before treating the vest as “spendable” | |
Net worth, August 31, 2026 (fictional)
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Checking + HYSA | $28,400 |
| 401(k) (mostly target-date fund) | $241,000 |
| Taxable index funds (automatic buys over 3 years) | $62,800 |
| Employer stock (RSUs held, fictional) | $410,000 |
| Car | $18,000 |
| Student loan | −$8,900 |
| Net worth | $751,300 |
Do the ugly percentage: employer stock is more than half of the net worth. The 401(k) and the automatic index buys are the diversification already in motion. They are also smaller than the pile that vests into the same name on the building.
The educational theme, not a trade
Classroom version: income from one employer plus a large position in that employer’s stock is concentrated risk. A broad index fund (S&P 500 or total market) is one common way people describe spreading that risk over time. Selling can create taxes. Holding can create a single-stock hole. There is no free plot twist.
Taylor’s “simple plan” in this story is mechanical: keep the 401(k) in a target-date fund, keep the $1,000 automatic index draft, and — in later months — decide whether newly vested shares get sold on a schedule. That decision is for a fictional character and, in real life, for a licensed advisor who can see a real tax return. Not for a blog.
Follow Taylor in their category. Background reading: Why We Keep Coming Back to Automatic S&P 500 Investing.