Your SpaceX Benefits & Career: Financial Planning for Employees and Executives

Do you work at SpaceX? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping SpaceX employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new SpaceX employee or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the SpaceX benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving SpaceX for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your SpaceX Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, SpaceX provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with SpaceX who specialize in helping SpaceX employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the Starbase, Texas headquarters or closer to Austin in the Bastrop office, the facility in Hawthorne, California, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at SpaceX to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with SpaceX employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for SpaceX Employees & Executives

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

1. Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for SpaceX Employees & Executives
2. Get Answers to Your Questions About Your SpaceX Benefits and Career
3. Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for SpaceX Employees & Executives

Answers to Employee Questions with Brady Lochte

Brady Lochte is a financial advisor based in Georgetown, Texas who specializes in offering financial planning services to SpaceX employees. Brady helps his clients get the most value from their SpaceX benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping SpaceX employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?

Brady: My focus at Axon Capital Management is on integrated wealth planning—making sure each benefit works together as part of a cohesive long-term strategy rather than being managed in isolation. We start by understanding their full compensation package, including retirement plans, equity compensation, and cash benefits, and then align those pieces with their personal goals, risk tolerance, and retirement timeline. This helps ensure day-to-day decisions support long-term outcomes. Equity decisions are always anchored to personal goals. We start with retirement timing, lifestyle priorities, risk tolerance, and future cash needs, then plan ahead for tender offers, secondary sales, and, if SpaceX ever IPOs, lockup periods and blackout windows. 

Q: When you first speak with a SpaceX employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Brady: I start with goals and constraints: What are you optimizing for (early retirement, a home purchase, generational wealth)? What’s your timeline, and what tradeoffs feel acceptable? Then we map the household balance sheet—income, spending, cash reserves, debt, and existing investment accounts. Then we get very specific on equity: What do you have (options, RSUs/awards), what are the vesting schedules, what’s vested vs. unvested, and what liquidity opportunities exist? Have you exercised any options before, and have you ever modeled AMT or withholding shortfalls?  

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to SpaceX employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?

Brady: The most common gap is not a single “benefit,” but the planning around equity—especially taxes and timing. Many employees understand the headline value of options/RSUs, but they haven’t pressure-tested scenarios like AMT from ISO exercises, the difference between selling strategies, or what a major liquidity event could do to their tax liability and cash needs. SpaceX also offers an ESPP that allows employees to purchase shares at a discount, which can be attractive—but that benefit has to be weighed against tying up cash and further increasing exposure to a single company. I can help employees evaluate whether ESPP participation fits within their short- and long-term goals.

Q: Beyond SpaceX employee benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients?

Brady: Equity is typically the centerpiece, so we coordinate it with everything else: cash flow, taxes, and near-term goals like housing or family planning. For employees with RSUs/awards that depend on a liquidity event such as an IPO, we plan for “what happens if it’s later than expected” and “what happens if it’s sooner than expected,” including how to fund taxes, diversify, and avoid lifestyle inflation. We also look at health and protection planning: choosing benefits intelligently, using HSA strategies when available, and confirming that life/disability coverage actually matches the household’s needs (especially when future wealth is tied to continued employment and equity outcomes).  

Q: For SpaceX employees thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Brady: Before giving notice, I recommend a “don’t leave value behind” checklist: confirm upcoming vesting dates, understand what you’ll forfeit, and review all post-termination rules for your options and awards. The 90-day post-termination window for exercising ISOs (common in many plans) can turn a career move into a high-stakes financial decision, so we model which grants are worth exercising, how much cash is needed, and the tax impact under different choices. Right after leaving, the priorities are executing the equity plan (deadlines first), then cleaning up benefits and accounts: avoid gaps in health coverage, review life/disability coverage changes, and decide what to do with the 401(k) (leave, rollover to IRA, or roll into a new plan). The main theme is speed and accuracy—missed equity deadlines or sloppy rollovers can be far more expensive than any investment decision you make that year. 

Q: For SpaceX employees approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?

Brady: For SpaceX employees, the big shift is generally addressing concentration risk as retirement approaches. If a large portion of net worth is company equity, we might set a diversification plan that respects trading windows and tax realities. Pairing that with a cash buffer and a portfolio designed for retirement volatility helps reduce “sequence of returns” risk and makes the first few years of retirement feel stable. 

Q: For SpaceX employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Brady: The decision usually comes down to complexity, stakes, and time. If your situation is mostly standard (steady savings, diversified portfolio, limited equity complexity) and you enjoy managing it, DIY can work well. But once you have multiple equity grants, looming expirations, potential AMT, a possible liquidity event, or competing goals like home purchase and early retirement, the cost of a mistake can jump dramatically. The other factor is bandwidth and objectivity. SpaceX employees are busy, and equity decisions are emotional—belief in the company can make it hard to diversify even when it’s rational. A good advisor should add value through clearer decisions (especially around equity + taxes), and a disciplined plan you can stick to. 

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are SpaceX employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Brady: The biggest challenge is illiquidity plus concentration: large paper wealth tied to one company, with limited opportunities to sell and lots of uncertainty around timing. We address this by building a long-term “liquidity roadmap”—what to do in each window, how much to sell (and why), and where the proceeds go so the household gradually becomes less dependent on a single outcome. The second challenge is tax complexity: option exercises, AMT considerations, potential large ordinary-income years tied to vesting/liquidity, and withholding that may not be sufficient. We model scenarios in advance, coordinate with a CPA, and set a plan for estimated taxes and diversification so the liquidity event becomes a controlled transition—not a scramble. 

Q: What questions do you recommend SpaceX employees ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?

Brady: Ask questions that reveal whether the advisor understands your needs: “How do you plan around pre-IPO equity, exercise decisions, AMT, and liquidity windows?” “Can you describe a framework you use for concentration risk when a client’s net worth is heavily tied to one company?” You’re looking for a clear process, not vague reassurance. Then ask about alignment and scope: “Are you a fiduciary, and how are you compensated?” “Do you provide comprehensive planning (tax coordination, equity strategy, retirement modeling), or only investment management?” Finally: “What does success look like in year 1?” A strong advisor can explain specific deliverables—equity plan, tax plan, diversification rules, and a timeline—without promising market outcomes. 

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with SpaceX employees that surprises you?

Brady: Employees often underestimate taxes tied to equity events, and overestimate how “sellable” private stock is. Once we map out what is taxable when, what the withholding might look like, and how lockups/blackouts affect timing, the planning becomes much more real—and usually much more actionable. It is also common for people to be “all-in” unintentionally. It’s not irrational—it’s often the natural result of years of equity grants plus belief in the SpaceX mission—but many don’t realize how concentrated they’ve become until we put percentages on a page.  

Q: For highly compensated SpaceX employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Brady: For executives, the big differences are constraints and planning opportunities. Restrictions on trading (and heightened scrutiny) can make it harder to diversify quickly, so we plan earlier and more systematically—often with a very deliberate tax calendar. We also discuss how bonus timing, equity vesting, and liquidity events can collide and create “peak tax years,” then build strategies to manage brackets and cash needs. 

Q: With SpaceX potentially approaching an IPO, what should employees think about to prepare?

Brady:  Start with timing realities: lockup periods, blackout windows, and the fact that “IPO day” usually isn’t “cash day.” Then prepare for taxes—especially if you have awards that become taxable around a liquidity event. Many people are surprised by how quickly an equity event can create a large tax obligation, so we plan cash needs, estimated payments, and a strategy for what to sell (when permitted) to fund taxes and diversification. Next, build your selling/diversification rules before the headlines and volatility hit. Decide what portion you’ll convert to diversified assets, what goals that money will fund (house, early retirement runway, college, debt payoff), and how you’ll avoid “all emotion, no plan” decisions.  

Get to Know Brady Lochte, Financial Advisor for SpaceX Employees:

View Brady’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

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