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Also it's generally unwise to hold onto your employer's stocks that you were granted as single stock ownership is inherently risky. There's no reason to believe your employer's shares are going to beat the market.

Also, the majority of employees in a company other than small startups do not have the ability to shift their company's success materially to make it a worthy incentive to own and hold employer issued stock.



90% of employee owners also have a 401k or retirement account. An ESOP account is in addition to their retirement account, not instead of it. So it's actually more of an upside without any downside.


My comment was on holding them, not receiving.

That is, you should treat them like receiving cash and convert them into whatever you would normally do wisely with extra cash you received.


Agreed.

Plus it's bad to have your investments and job in the same place. If the company fails you lose you job and savings at the same time.

Yes, there are non-financial reasons to have "shares in the place where I work". But financially it's a bad investment.

(If the shares come with management rights, responsibilities, obligations, decision making, that's different.)




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