woot, ESPP did well (just sold)...+81.4% return/6 months

[Joet]

for holding onto some spare cash for 6 months, I just got a +81.4% return. not a bad return annualized :)
will have to pay the taxes next april though. But a free +7500 is a free +7500! (net profit)

if anyone is curious I have the 'immediate sale' option triggered on the account. Resulted in a teeny capital gain.

also because I am cheap, I elected for the 'free' check option vs a wire. Of course if interest rates were terribly different there might be a different strategy to take at some point.

Lastly: the check is too big for photo deposit so I plan on walking or riding my bike to the ATM (woo! green power)

So I used it to pay off anti-MMM new vehicle purchase #2 (an '09 MDX), so now I no longer have a car note, but two newer-cars ea/w under 40k miles (other car is a 335i). FWIW the interest rate was 1.9, this was just a mental thing I guess. I was thinking I'd have to wait for my semi-annual bonus later in the month but ESPP was enough to dump the note (yeah! a 5-yr car loan lolol!) Only paying it off about 17 months early but whatev! (for those doing the math, this was a leftover '09 purchased sub invoice in early '10)

I'm assuming these anti-MMM-wagons will serve us another solid 6+ years each. Right around FI time *knocks on wood* hopefully.

[Runner77]

Damn, I have an ESPP as well and I thought I my 46% return was good. I still cannot believe more people in my company do not participate in the plan, especially since you can sell immediately.

[boy_bye]

Nice, both of you. Folks at my company who've been signed up for a while got some insane 80-ish return this last 6 month period, too. Can't wait till this time next year when I'm out of debt and ready to participate. Maybe I can jump in come January...

[hybrid]

Nice, both of you. Folks at my company who've been signed up for a while got some insane 80-ish return this last 6 month period, too. Can't wait till this time next year when I'm out of debt and ready to participate. Maybe I can jump in come January...

That is most excellent.  At my firm we don't have an ESPP but we do have a 401K, and the firm contributes 7.5% to it after a few years whether or not the employee puts in dime one.  So while that is nowhere near as good as what the OP experienced, it is very consistent, and I consider it to be quite generous.

I wish our firm would match up to 10% instead of just grant 7.5% though.  Because I bet it wouldn't look any different on the firm bottom line, and yet savers like me would take full advantage.  For now I contribute an additional 6%.

[msilenus]

Sweet!  FYI: if there's a discount on the sale price of those ESPP shares, you can avoid taxes on the discounted portion by holding 2 years. 

You clearly wanted to lock in your gains enough to pay short term capital gains, so I doubt that's a major concern for you, but lots of people don't know, so it's worth pointing out when an excuse presents itself.

[dragoncar]

Auto sell is the way to do it... Otherwise too much risk tied up in your employer.  Congrats!

[msilenus]

That's situational.  Of course: if you're making 81.4% in an offering period, then the advice is more likely to apply.

Personally, I hold my shares for two years.  I enjoy some combination of my employer being stable, having a stable relationship with me, and having been saving for long enough that two years of ESPP shares don't wildly unbalance my portfolio.

[Joet]

More than situational imo, personal preferences. That said not paying my marginal tax rate vs LT cap gains would be even nicer!

[PathtoFIRE]

Just looked into the ESPP at my work, and first I was excited, because I could theoretically put up to $1000 per paycheck x26/yr at 85%. However, it turns out the fine print in my benefits information says that the shares cannot be sold for 3 months. Does anyone have a similar stipulation, and is this typically binding (i.e. the Computershare account this all would be going into will not let me sell), or is this a more of a "rule" situation where I'm being asked to not sell as part of my agreement to participate. Either way, I don't think this works for me, but I found a lot of examples on the internet allowing instant autosell, and of course my company would be the one to not allow that.

[Joet]

you could always cover your positions through put options--of course that isnt free, and it probably could be a bit weird if your name popped up as a short/put position holder against company stock :)

[msilenus]

Jason, your employer is offering you $3600/year to hold $6000 of their stock.

Take the money and run!