Older person perspective: I have gotten (and sometimes been able to sell!) equity in five companies in my lifetime. It's the main part of my wealth, but its s

Older person perspective: I have gotten (and sometimes been able to sell!) equity in five companies in my lifetime. It's the main part of my wealth, but its surprising how much real estate and slow and steady investing can get you over time if you have a good income. I tell my kids, always try to get equity or ownership rights over anything you do, when you can. However, these things have gotten so much more complicated in my life time and frankly much more deceptive and hostile to employees who don't have a finance degree. And sometimes it helps to have a finance degree and cash to kick in. (Rich like the OP says.) As an example: The first salaried job I ever had (19), at a completely boring company (I did their IT) they let you put a % of your paycheck in a thing called an ESOP. I put a little in, forgot about. About ten years later the company was sold and they tracked me down to give me a nice check. One class of stock, no RSUs, if the CEO made money I made money. The last start up I worked at: they had an incredible number of rounds, not all classes of stock were the same, and RSUs. It actually worked out well for me. But I can see how you can use the dream of a big pay out and then pull the rug out in indecipherable ways.