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← New Money · Issue 002 · The Sunday Brief
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Sunday, March 15, 2026
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◆ Issue 002 · March 15
What the
wealthy do
differently.
Five structural moves that compound. Not “spend less”.
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From the editor
Replies on Issue 001 leaned 02 and 04 — the tax wrapper and the productized retainer. Same money pattern from two angles. The wealthy don’t earn differently from you; they route differently. Same dollar lands in a wrapper that grows tax-free, an asset that throws off cashflow, or an equity that compounds — not a checking account.
This week, five routing moves. The comp delta between a manager-of-one and a VP-of-seven (per Levels.fyi), the under-35 tax-wrapper stack, the prompts that replace a coordinator headcount, the math on owning three cashflow assets by 35, and what the boomer wealth transfer (per Fed SCF data) actually means for your timing.
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The manager-of-one is now the highest-paid title in the org chart.
Levels.fyi Q1 2026 medians: staff IC with 0 reports at a top-tier tech co clocks $485k all-in. VP managing seven reports at the same co clocks $462k. That gap was −$80k just three years ago. The crossover happened because hiring a manager costs the org seven salaries of overhead and AI made every IC roughly two reports of leverage. Same hierarchy — different ROI.
If you’re in the M1–M2 layer and your team is under ten, the safer move is sideways into a staff/principal IC track with the same comp band. Promotion path: harder. Survival path: easier. Your VP doesn’t want to hear this. The market already priced it.
What to do this week
Pull the staff/principal IC career ladder doc for your team (every BigCo has one). Read the four highest-impact criteria. Pick the two you’re weakest on. Slot one project this quarter that lets you demonstrate each. The ladder unlocks the move — not your tenure as a manager.
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The under-35 tax-wrapper stack, in order.
Four wrappers per the IRS code, in the order they should fill: (1) HSA — $4,300 / $8,550 contribution, triple-tax-free, the only wrapper with that math. (2) 401(k) to the match — a guaranteed return on the first few percent. (3) Roth IRA — $7,000 if your AGI clears the limit (and the back-door is legal). (4) Mega backdoor Roth — up to $46k more in after-tax, in-plan converted to Roth (Issue 001, Play 02).
Stacked, a 30-year-old earning $250k can route $80k+/year through tax-advantaged wrappers without ever leaving W2 employment. At 35 years and a 7% real return, that’s an extra $1.4M compared to the same dollars in a taxable brokerage. The wealth difference between operators at the same comp is mostly this routing.
What to do this week
Calendar 45 minutes Sunday evening. Open every contribution dashboard you have. Confirm: HSA maxed, 401(k) at or above the match, Roth IRA contribution scheduled, mega backdoor activated. If any are unchecked, do the next click. Most people lose this game in the gap between “I know about it” and “the contribution is scheduled.”
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The 5 prompts that replace a $90k coordinator.
Every operations team has a coordinator. Schedules, status decks, contractor follow-up, vendor intake, weekly digest. Median BLS OES wage for that role: $74k base, $90k loaded. Five prompts — one per task — in Claude Projects with a calendar + email integration replace ~85% of the throughput. The 15% that remains is human judgment, which is the part you wanted to keep anyway.
1 · STATUS DIGEST
Pull every Slack thread tagged #project this week. Summarize as: blocker, owner, ETA. 5 bullets max.
2 · MEETING PREP
For the 3 meetings on my calendar tomorrow, give me: attendees, last interaction context, the one decision each needs.
3 · VENDOR FOLLOW-UP
For every vendor email older than 5 days without response, draft a one-paragraph follow-up I can send as is.
4 · WEEKLY DECK
Build a 5-slide weekly status: KPIs vs target, top blockers, decisions made, decisions needed, next week.
5 · INBOX TRIAGE
Sort my unread inbox into: respond today, defer with 1-line, ignore. Draft the deferrals.
What to do this week
Pick the one prompt above that maps to your most-resented Monday task. Run it once. If it cuts >30 minutes, save it as a Claude Project system prompt and run it every Monday at 8am. Compounded across a year, that’s your annual leave back.
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The holding-company starter kit: three cashflow assets by 35.
A “holding company” isn’t a hedge fund. It’s an LLC that owns three cashflow assets. Realistic 35-year-old build: (A) one rental unit at $1,800/mo net, (B) one content site bought via Bloomberg-tracked marketplaces at $1,200/mo, (C) one productized SaaS or consulting subscription at $2,500/mo. Total ~$66k/year in cashflow before the W2 income.
The unlock isn’t the cashflow alone; it’s that the three assets uncorrelate with your job. The 2026 RIF risk you can’t hedge in your career, you can hedge here. And operationally, the assets stack: same QuickBooks, same legal entity, same tax filing.
What to do this week
Form the LLC. $300 in most states. Use it to receive your first productized-consulting check (Issue 001, Play 04). The structure precedes the assets, not the other way around. People wait six years to file because they think they need the assets first. You don’t.
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The $84T boomer wealth transfer — what actually moves, and when.
Per Fed Survey of Consumer Finances and Cerulli estimates, US boomers will pass $84T to heirs and charities over the next two decades. Most of the press treats this as one event. It’s not. It is three different flows arriving at three different speeds, and only one of them is windfall-shaped.
Flow 1: Real estate. Inherited homes, currently ~$22T. Average heir age at receipt: 60. Liquid value lands when they sell, which is rarely the year of inheritance.
Flow 2: Brokerage + IRA. ~$31T. Subject to SECURE 2.0 10-year drawdown rules. This is the most liquid slice and the most mistimed.
Flow 3: Private business equity. ~$15T. Realizes only on sale, often discounted, often decade-long.
For an under-35 reader, the right framing is: this is your parents’ balance sheet, not yours. The financial behavior to plan around is theirs, not the future windfall.
What to do this week
Have the awkward 20-minute conversation: are the wills updated, where do the brokerage accounts live, who’s the executor. Not about the money. About the mechanics. The cost of finding out at the funeral is 6–18 months of probate friction and routinely 20% of the asset value lost to it.
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◆ Chart of the Week
Staff IC $485k. VP $462k. The crossover.
Median all-in comp · Q1 2026
| Staff IC (0 reports) |
$485k |
IC-minus-VP gap, by year
| 2023 |
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VP +$80k |
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| 2025 |
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VP +$10k |
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| 2026 |
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IC +$23k |
Source: Levels.fyi Q1 2026 cuts. The IC ladder is now the better-paid ladder at the senior end. Three years ago this number was −$80k. The shape of the org chart hasn’t changed; the price of each box did.
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◆ The Tape
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$80K+
Annual wrapper routing capacity
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$66K
Holding-co cashflow target
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$84T
Boomer transfer, 20-yr window
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One favour before you go
Reply with one number: 01, 02, 03, 04, or 05 — which play you’d run first this week.
I read every reply. They shape what shows up in Issue 003.
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Go run something. See you next Sunday.
— The Operator
still at McKinsey, still building
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Know an operator who’d like this? Forward it →
© 2026 New Money
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