On the topic of financial literacy and investments.
There’s this thing called ESPP — in a nutshell, it’s when your employer gives you the opportunity to buy their stock at a discount. There are all kinds of restrictions, but it works fairly simply: you decide how much you want to buy, that amount is withheld from your paycheck over six months, and at the end of those six months the number of shares you receive is calculated taking the promised discount into account. With one of my previous employers I took advantage of this option — and set it aside “for a rainy day,” let it just sit there. The amount wasn’t large, and the number of shares was even smaller, not really going to move the needle. Then the other day the broker — the institution that holds these shares in my name — sends a message, the gist of which was “starting in December we will be charging you a hundred bucks for account maintenance.” I was so surprised that I didn’t even finish reading it — is that per year or per day? — and decided that this was the signal it was time to act.
I went to sell — and as of today the price of those shares is even lower than what I paid with the discount. Wump-wump-wump… Instead of making money, it turns out I gave my own money to my employer as an interest-free loan, and even threw in a little extra on top. And it’s still too early to celebrate — because the sale hasn’t gone through yet, and the money isn’t in my pocket yet — judging by the web interface that looks like it’s from the 90s, one can expect some fun surprises.