I can't say I outright dislike anything you're saying, and I do understand your position. My key issue however is that I need to risk assess and budget my life

I can't say I outright dislike anything you're saying, and I do understand your position. My key issue however is that I need to risk assess and budget my life just as you need to do your business. I simply can't do that on the basis of a bonus. It might give me the chance to take a more luxurious vacation or pay down a debt a little faster than I had anticipated, which is wonderful, really, but it's like an inheritance: I have next to no control over it and can't plan my life that way. Lesser comp. that I can plan for gives me control of my life that I'd rather have instead. Stock options are where I'd rather take the risk, because that's a longer haul that I can plan and adjust for with well worn investor metrics, and more importantly, I don't lose and can exercise when it works for me.