Q1: Most of my net worth is in Broadcom stock, Nvidia, Apple, Qualcomm or a few other tech companies that I worked for - is it wise to sell some before I retire?

A: While you should always do your own research or talk to your own financial advisor, we can provide you with how we usually handle these issues when they've come up for clients or spouses of clients.

Diversification rules are really set up for people who have somewhat average net worths - usually less than a million dollars in liquid assets, plus their home.

Diversification can be very important for people in those situations because they need to ensure that they can fund their living costs and they don't want to have all their eggs in one basket.

However, when we deal with clients in the tech space who are pre-retirees often they have $5 million to $50 million in employer stocks and so there are many ways to ensure that they will meet their lifestyle needs (examples are holding some liquid cash, diversifying some holdings etc.) and they are often able to carry a more concentrated position into retirement and still should be able to fully fund their lifestyle in our view.

There are many ways to diversify, selling some shares, hedging them by selling out of the money calls and using the proceeds to buy out of the money puts, are using a variety of other instruments.

The right thing to do for many people in our view is based on the client goals and the prospects and valuation of the company. This means whether to sell or how much is a very individual decision and our advice is generally done on a case by case basis and if you are unsure yourself we always recommend talking to a fiduciary financial advisor.

Q2: How should I use Broadcom’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)?

A: Where possible, we often recommend that employees consider using the ESPP at work. The ESPP gives you a 15% discount on Broadcom stock—guaranteed profit.

How to manage a concentrated stock position like owning a lot of Broadcom or other tech companies is as much art as it is science - there are not firm rules that fit every scenario - but depenidng on your goals and financial situation, as well as how the company is doing - it may make sense to sell your ESPP stock right away or hold it at least to get to long term capital gains or other the long term.

Q3: Should I contribute to a Roth 401(k) or Traditional 401(k)?

A: For many people within 5–10 years of early retirement, who have a net worth of more than a couple of million dollars, the Roth 401(k) is more efficient. Your contributions are taxed now, but withdrawals and growth in retirement are tax-free after 5 years—creating potential tax-efficient distributions.

The Traditional 401(k) gives tax relief today but leaves you with taxable withdrawals later.

If you want to maximize tax-free retirement dollars, you may also want to consider using the Mega Backdoor Roth if available: make after-tax 401(k) contributions and convert them to Roth inside the plan.

Q4: How much does Broadcom match my 401(k) contributions?

A: To our knowledge, as of 11/19/25, Broadcom matches 100% of the first 6% of your income that you put into your 401(k). That is a very generous match by national standards.

Q5: Is Broadcom's 401(k) competitive with it's peers? How are the fees?

A: Broadcom has an outstanding 401(k) with lots of low cost funds from companies like Vanguard, Fidelity, Dodge and Cox and T. Rowe Price, to our knowledge.

Additionally you have access to a Fidelity BrokerageLink Account through your Broadcom 401(k) which is outstanding. Overall, Broadcom's 401(k) is a national leader in our view and is one of the top 401(k)s in the United States for a large company, in our view.

When compared to their peers, NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), all three companies have excellent 401(k)s with low cost index funds, Fidelity as the vendor and a Fidelity BrokerageLink, which is an essential component of a good 401(k).

They differ on the employer contributions. As of 11/19/25, NVIDIA has the most employee friendly 401(k) with generous employer contributions, Broadcom is in the middle with very generous employer contributions and AMD is in the back.

All three are great plans - NVIDIA stands for out for going over and above in the generoisty to employees through 401(k) contributions, but Broadcom and AMD are also both very generous with their employees in terms of employer contributions to the 401(k).

Q6: Can I take loans or hardship withdrawals from my 401(k)?

A: To our knowlede it is possible to borrow up to $50,000 in $1,000 increments from your Broadcom 401(k). To our knowledge the rate is prime + 1%. The loan terms are 5-15 years to our knowledge.

We believe this information is accurate, but it is imperative to check with employer for exact loan terms of the Broadcom 401(k) before making any financial decisions.

Q7: What should I do with all my Broadcom RSUs?

A: While this is an individual decision that you should do your own research on and talk to your own professional advisors, including a fiduciary financial advisor if you have one, managing your company stock and RSUs is one of the most impactful decisions you can make in terms of retiring early and having a comfortable retirement.

There are important trade offs between financial security and comfort and perhaps an increased desire for diversification once the paychecks stop coming in and you have to start living off your savings.

The tech industry is a young person's game - and if you retire at 50 and take 5 years off - it is not always clear that you can reeneter at the same compensation level or professional level if you haven't kept your skills up.

So if you are planning on retiring early - it is useful to do a good financial analysis and become an expert or talk to an expert on how to potentially increase the chances that your money will support the lifestyle that you want.

One thing that I think is useful is to conceptualize a financial advisor as sort of like a Costco - they tend to know what everything is selling for and what most of the available options are - so they can help you ensure you get a good deal on price if you start to diversify outside of owning mostly your company stock.

Q8: How do I maximize contributions for early retirement?

A: Max out every tax-advantaged account allowed: (1) your 401(k) up to the annual limit; (2) after-tax 401(k) contributions for Mega Backdoor Roth; (3) a Traditional IRA if your income allows; (4) then taxable brokerage accounts, which give you flexible access to funds before age 59½.

Coordinating all three correctly is one of the most effective early-retirement accelerators.

Saving and tax management is important to and through retirement. Most higher income employees are aware of all the savings options (which types of accounts) but they aren't all aware of all the investment options, which is why it can be beneficial to talk with an expert before converting your assets into income in preparation for your paycheck going away.

Q9: How should I plan withdrawals as I approach early retirement?

A: This really depends on your asset mix and taxes. Our tax code is highly progressive and depending on where you live in retirement you could find yourself in different tax brackets.

There are some basic rules of thumb for withdrawals, that apply to many people, but when you have a concentrated stock position handling that from a tax point of view, can sort of set up other decisions.

Q10: What should I expect to pay for professional assistance/advice and what is the best way to pay for it?

Rates for professional advice are generally set by geography to a degree.

Common professional services include

-A tax preparer (sometimes a CPA but CPAs are not actually required just to file taxes): typically $300-$800 per tax season if you don't have rental real estate or a business in retirement.

-A financial advisor or planner (industry standard fees are still about 1% of assets but you get breakpoints typically at most firms if you have more assets). Of course if most of your assets are in a few concentrated stocks, this can create an unfair situation for the client since the advisor doesn't have to do as much work to monitor a non-diversified portfolio compared to a diversified portfolio.

An alternative fee approach is a flat fee approach. While these fees may vary from firm to firm, typically you should expect to pay a flat fee of $5,000 to $15,000 per year for financial advice if you have up to a $2 million portfolio. If you convert this into an asset under management fee equivalent for a $2 million portfolio that is typically going to be somewhere in the 0.25% to 0.75% of assets fee up to $2 million. If you have more than $2 million, you might pay more.

There are cheaper alternatives but the way those alternatives get to be cheaper is they use cookie cutter portfolios or one size fits most approaches that don't always fit as well for a concentrated portfolio.

If portfolios are massive - say in the $25 million an up range, typically industry fees that we've seen will cluster around 0.30% to 0.40% of assets under management equivalent.

That is the lowest I usually see for truly comprehensive financial advice from expert people, in my experience.

With all fees it is important to consider both inputs and outputs. A fee for any service should never be looked at in isolation (just looking at the inputs and ignoring the potential outputs, or just looking at the outputs and ignoring the input costs). It works best to consider these things together in our view.

Q11: What’s the overall action plan for early retirement with Broadcom benefits?

A: While each approach has to be individualized to the investor and we're not your financial advisor unless you have a signed written advisory agreement with us. But there is a checklist of things that you may want to consider if you are planning to retire in the next 5 years. They include:

(1) How do you plan to manage your Broadcom stock concentration or concentration in other company stocks that you used to work for not that you'll be living off your savings.

(2) Whether you want to use your last few years of ESPP to hold the stock or sell it soon after purchasing it

(3) Whether you want to favor Roth 401(k) contributions for predictable, tax-free withdrawals later;

(4) How are you handling 401(k) contributions including are you making sure to capture the 6% employer match;

(5) Do your current investments match your time horizons and goals?

(6) Do your non-company stock investment complement your Broadcom holdings for the purpose of pursuing your goals?

(7) Do you have a strategy to coordinate 401(k), IRA, and taxable account withdrawlas for maximum tax efficiency in retirement

(8) plan your withdrawal strategy deliberately to minimize taxes and extend your portfolio’s life.

Hopefully his article gives you a clear roadmap to use every employer benefit intelligently while avoiding the common tax, risk, and planning mistakes that delay or derail early retirement.

While we primary work with physicians and people in the healthcare field, we do have experience transitioning former Broadcom, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Apple employees in theirs 50s into early retirement and advising on how to manage concentrated stock positions in the last few years of your career.

If you are interested in having a conversation about your situation, you have at least $2m in securities or company stock and are within 5 years of retiring - and you'd like to have a conversation to see if we are a good fit to work together you can fill out the following form to request a 10 minute introductory phone call. On this call we'll get to know each other, discuss your goals and see if we might be a good fit to talk further and potentially work together in the future.

Disclosure: This article is written for educational purposes only. While we believe the information in this article is correct, the only authoritative sources on Broadcom's benefits is Broadcom itself, your plan document, and the financial vendor for your plan. You are not a client or Daniel Harris or D.R. Harris & Co. unless you have a signed written advisory agreement with us. If you are interested in working with a fiduciary financial advisor like us in the future please fill out the following form.