Stock Options & RSUs

Cadence tracks employer-granted equity compensation - both stock options (typically ISOs or NSOs) and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Grants live alongside your other assets under Net Worth, and they roll into your net worth at fair market value as they vest.

Equity is often the most volatile and least liquid component of someone's compensation, so giving it a dedicated home - rather than mixing it in with regular brokerage holdings - keeps the vesting picture and the underlying valuations clearly separated.

Follow these steps to record a new equity grant:

1. Open the Net Worth page.
2. Tap “Add Asset” and choose Stock Option/RSU.
3. Enter the total number of shares.
4. Enter the current share price - the fair market value (FMV).
5. For options, also enter the strike price. For RSUs, leave the strike at zero.
6. Optionally turn on Track individual grants to model vesting, then set the vesting start date, cliff, vesting period, and frequency.
7. Save the grant.

There is a single combined Stock Option/RSU asset type: an RSU is just a grant with a strike price of zero. You can record multiple grants over time, and each one tracks independently, which mirrors how grants typically work at most companies.

Vesting is opt-in. By default a grant uses a flat model where every share counts toward your net worth, with no vesting applied. This is the simplest way to track equity you just want reflected at its current value.

When you turn on Track individual grants, Cadence models the vesting start, cliff, vesting period, and frequency you set. As time passes, more of your shares move from unvested to vested, and only vested shares roll into your net worth - unvested shares are tracked but not counted, since you don't actually own them yet. This keeps your net worth honest, showing what you have today rather than what you might have if you stay for the full schedule.

Both options and RSUs use the current share price you enter as the fair market value (FMV). Options additionally take a strike price; RSUs leave it at zero. From there, the two are valued differently, matching how they actually work:

• Options have intrinsic value equal to FMV minus the strike price, multiplied by vested shares. If FMV is below strike, the options are underwater and contribute zero to net worth rather than a negative number.
• RSUsare valued at full FMV multiplied by vested shares. There's no strike to subtract - you receive the shares outright as they vest.

This means an option grant and an RSU grant of the same size will contribute very different amounts to your net worth, especially early in a company's life when FMV is close to strike.

Fair market value is the lever that determines how much your equity is worth on any given day. You should refresh it when something changes the price: a new internal 409A valuation at a private company, a fresh round of funding, or a meaningful move in the public market price for a publicly traded employer.

For private-company equity, valuations typically refresh once or twice a year. For public stock, you can update as often as feels useful - many people pick a monthly or quarterly cadence rather than chasing daily price moves.

Every FMV update you record is captured as a snapshot, just like other assets. Your net worth chart reflects each change on the date you make it, which means the long-term trend genuinely tracks how your equity has moved rather than freezing at the original grant value.

Combined with vesting progress, this gives you two layers of movement over time: more shares vesting (more of the grant counted) and the per-share value moving up or down. Both show up cleanly in history without you having to do any extra bookkeeping.