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Options are often not worth the paper they’re printed on. For pre-IPO, pre-acquisition, companies there’s no real market for those options. You may well be able
by jon-wood 8y ago
Options are often not worth the paper they’re printed on. For pre-IPO, pre-acquisition, companies there’s no real market for those options. You may well be able to get better tax rates on them, but only if you can actually sell them. Compare that to RSUs which you can exchange the day they vest for actual cash, with a minimum of fuss.
For perspective here I, and everyone I know who have worked for startups as an employee, have never seen a single penny from stock options. Maybe one day I will, but I consider them to be nothing more than a potential pleasant surprise down the line.
- icedchai 8y agoPaper? You don't even get paper stock certificates these days. It's all electronic. At a previous company, I exercised my stock options when I left. This cost me about $4K. Two years later, I got $12K back... not a bad return, but certainly not the "potential for early retirement" I was told when I joined.
- dawhizkid 8y agoit's just a colloquialism...
- icedchai 8y agoSorry, I forgot the /s! Still, you used to actually get real paper stock when you exercised.
- rhizome 8y agoRecently I was going through my father's papers and found a stock certificate for IBM, I think from the 60s or 70s. I think I'm going to frame it.