Employee Stock Purchasing (Etrade, brokerage, fund, fees)

[nat_at772]

I did the employee stock purchase plan for my current job which is Centurylink. I will be leaving the company at the end of this month. I'm trying to decide what to do with the stock. I never followed it or any parts of the stock market really; I just did it because it was there and people always talk about how important investing is. I don't even know how to read this and the HR person at my job is no help.

My contribution was about $595 in 2012 and $1,123 in 2013.

When I go to mu Etrade account it says Stocks Complete $57.92 and Stock Plan $1,173.18

I'm trying to determine if I just let the stock sit there (are there fees for this?) get my money back (I don't have an immediate financial need) or move it to other stock.

I'm a newbie at this so any help would be appreciated.

Nat

[bmw335xi]

If you think your company will be very successful then keep it, if not sell it and learn the basics of investing. Once you know the basics invest in an ETF that matches the Dow or S&P 500.

[icicles]

I would leave the stock there. Centurylink is a fine company.

I left my Boeing stock there when I worked for them. and I have made a lot of money. I used to have Goodrich aerospace stock from my ESPP and we were bought out at 127.50 by UTC. I made 4 times my investment amount on some of that money when I invested back from 2005 through 2012. I was better off leaving the money in the company and letting it ride.

I suggest you do the same.

[bUU]

We "left the stock there" for four employers over the course of our careers, and as a result, we've had a hard time maintaining a respectable level of diversification in the equities portion of our portfolio. (To be fair, two of the four stocks are among the 50 most widely-held stocks, and one of them is in the top 10, so our issue is exacerbated by the fact that in addition to the employee stock we hold, we have additional holdings of the same stock in whatever equity funds we hold.) Individual company stock is, well, individual company stock. The chances that your former employer happens to be one of the companies that diligent research would find superior value in, long-term, substantially superior to the thousands of other options available to you, is pretty slim. If you wouldn't pick that stock to hold anyway (including because your investment strategy is funds-based rather than stocks-based), then don't hold the stock out of sentiment, laziness, etc. My advice is that once you have fully benefited from whatever discount offered, treat it like any other holding that you didn't select deliberately as part of exercising your form investment strategy (i.e., selling it if it doesn't fit within the parameters of your formal investment strategy).

[mathjak107]

betting most of your portfolio on one company is never a good thing. it gets worse when as as you say you have no interesat in even following it.,

the investment graveyard is filled with big blue chips that fell on hard times.

my vote is sell it and put your money into some diversified funds.

[LRUA]

Wish we had it.

Company I work for stock went from $93 in august to $ 149 now,
could have made a ton of money this year.
Most stocks went up crazy in 2013 (except gold stocks).

[mathjak107]

i am sure employees from kodak,gm,chrysler,ford,citi-bank blockbuster ,netflix etc etc feel alot different.

being tied up in the stock of anyone company is bad enough planning but the worst mistake is loading up on company stock while you still work there.

nothing more horrible than getting layed off and losing your job and life savings.

i warn people to be careful buying not only buying their own company stock unless it is a small percentage of their holding but even about investing in their own industry.

folks see products and break throughs all the time in their industry that they think are the greatest innovations.

only problem is the rest of the world does not care .

my buddy was in the phone installation business and thought luscent was the greates company ever.

he bought 6 figures worth at 50-75 bucks a share. it eventually plunged to a buck as things didn't bring the profits mto luscent like he thought.

[JRR]

Ahhh, the name Lucent brings back memories. In the late 90s I worked for a brokerage company and I remember trying to talk a client out of putting everything into Lucent at around $75. Couldn't do it as he was totally convinced that move was going to make him super wealthy.

Father-in-law of a friend of mine worked for Lucent and had almost all his retirement money in the stock. His retirement wound up not being anything like he thought it would be.

I agree that employer stock should only be in a small amount. Just because a stock went crazy to the upside this year doesn't mean that it can't go crazy to the downside next year

[mathjak107]

many lucent employees got burned. they saw all the patents and innovations as gold. to bad the rest of the world didn't understand what they were or did or even cared.

i work in a technical field myself. i am a factory motor control specialist. i see new developments and innovations all the time from companies all the time in my field.

i know better than to think the world sees what i do.

Originally Posted by mathjak107

my vote is sell it and put your money into some diversified funds.

This.

I wouldn't want the risk of having both my salary and my investments all tied up in the same company, even if that company is doing well. Certainly take advantage of the employee stock purchasing program, but diversify as soon as possible. I view stock purchase programs as a way to get get a really good return in a very short period of time, but not as a long term investment strategy.