What to do?
- Started
- Last post
- 14 Responses
- sigg
I've been getting etrade statements for the better part of 8 years now and I have been throwing them straight into the trash, because I don't ever remember buying stock. (yeah, stupid I know but I thought it was some kind of spam mail). A week ago I decided to open the letter only to discover that 8+ years ago, while working for an obscure company, I purchased a number of stock options through a company purchasing plan. I thought for sure when I was laid off they bought the stock back from me, but it turns out the company only bought back their matching portion of the stock.
Long story short I bought the stock for $12 a share, it's not $72 a share. There's no way (IMO) it will ever hit $85+ or even $100 a share so do I sell it? If so what would etrade charge me and what types of fees would I be looking at come tax time?
Any help would be much appreciated.
- pinkfloyd0
Which stock was it? You don't have to answer this part, but I was curious to know how many shares you have.
- DRIFTMONKEY0
pffft... found money! Go ape shit dude.
- dskz0
sell sell sell
- akrok0
don't sell now. hold on a bit longer. 2-3 years. probably go up.
- monospaced0
sell
- pinkfloyd0
So for every 100 shares you bought at $12, it's gone up to $72 a share bringing the total to $7,200 per 100 shares. Nice
- monNom0
Talk to an accountant and find out the best way to get rid of them with the lowest tax hit. 'Cause I believe options are taxed as income, rather than straight capital gains (may vary by jurisdiction).
- sigg0
^ That's right on the money pinkfloyd.
I'd keep it for a few more years but looking at the stocks past year it's grown from $30 in jan 2010 to $77 jan 2011, being pretty dormant it's whole life at or around $20 a share after I bought it. I'm afraid if I keep it, it might drop back down and I sure don't want to get greedy and wait for it to get to $100, when what it's worth now is more than enough.
- OSFA0
- GeorgesII0
pretty cool,
i'll advise you to keep it for another year or two,
but I don't know shit about finance,
- Amicus0
If you don't own your own house yet this seems like the perfect downpayment. House prices are depressed in many parts of the world right now – not in Australia :( – and you could make healthy returns over the next few years while paying off your own mortgage, not someone elses.