Author Topic: Help me understand my ESPP  (Read 1040 times)

lbonga1

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Help me understand my ESPP
« on: June 19, 2018, 10:34:23 AM »
The ESPP through my new company is sort of untraditional. Instead of having periods of 6-12 months, with my plan, the stocks are purchased with every pay period (every two weeks). They're purchased at a 10% discount, and I can contribute up to 15% of my salary. I was planning to sell the shares every other pay period, but I just noticed there's a minimum $24.99 brokerage commission and a $5 transfer fee when I sell. I was trying to calculate how much percentage-wise those fees affect my return, but I don't know if I'm calculating correctly. As an example with what is currently in my account:

Contributions: $1096.16
Current value: $1238.50
Unrealized gain: $142.34

So if I subtract the fees from the unrealized gain, I get $112.35, divide that by my contributions, and I get about 10.25%. So am I correct that I am still getting a 10% return despite the fees? Should I wait another 4 weeks to sell the shares to minimize how much I'm paying in fees, or is it not worth the risk of the stock price potentially going down? An important thing to note is I'll be using the gains to contribute to my IRA.