I was in a situation where the company was trying to sell itself. I was 1.5 years into 4 year vesting schedule. I decided to leave for 10k more and not buy my

I was in a situation where the company was trying to sell itself. I was 1.5 years into 4 year vesting schedule. I decided to leave for 10k more and not buy my options and a few months later it sold with all employees getting vested. If I would have stay that would have worked out to 100,000. But I ended up much better off. The extra 10k allowed me to qualify to buy a house. The house was 1/2 a million and rose to a million in 4 years. During those 4 years I would be stuck at the new company (those were the terms because they fully vest everyone). I avoided the endless flying trips to hq to train them. I kept my freedom to move to other opportunities. Options do payoff but salary is worth more because your purchasing power increases. Real estate (single detacted houses) in a world class growing city always goes up.