Not sure if this is a horror story but it's an interesting recent dilemma. I started as a contractor for a startup about 8 years ago and was awarded some Non Qu

Not sure if this is a horror story but it's an interesting recent dilemma. I started as a contractor for a startup about 8 years ago and was awarded some Non Qualified stock options that vested but were not exercised. I never came on board as an employee, but did do contract work from time to time. After a couple of years, I moved on to better opportunities, but the contract was never really terminated. The startup in question recently merged with a larger company and during due diligence my options were discovered. So.. they let me know I have these options if I wish to exercise them in the next 90 days. It looks like I'll have a taxable event just by exercising them as they are NQ. Not sure if it is really worth the risk as I still haven't been able to get a fair market value of the shares from them and I don't see the opportunity for them going public or being acquired any time soon.