i think tobi needs to talk to his shopifolks
Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
11–20 of 282 posts
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#12I obviously don't want to give financial advice, but every time I've traded cash for stock in comp it's worked out for me in spades in the long run. This doesn't happen for everyone, it might not happen for you, but it's been very good to me on three separate occasions. Just remember that it's terribly illiquid and you're going to doubt your decision, potentially up to a decade later.
> it's been very good to me on three separate occasions.
Were those occasions during the mass retirement of the boomer generation leading to accelerating liquidation of stock market positions while the replacement generations are inadequate in number to replace the retirees during the collapse of globalization likely causing drops in worker productivity? Or were they during the longest stock market bull run in history?
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#13I obviously don't want to give financial advice, but every time I've traded cash for stock in comp it's worked out for me in spades in the long run. This doesn't happen for everyone, it might not happen for you, but it's been very good to me on three separate occasions. Just remember that it's terribly illiquid and you're going to doubt your decision, potentially up to a decade later.
When they were printing money endlessly and rates were low, your strategy is sound. However, the house of cards is now crumbling and there is no end in sight to rate rises.
My hedge fund manager friend for a private family office is saying we will see double digit rates by end of 2023. If you believe this then you know what to do. If not, you should at least think what such macro conditions would do to liquidity.
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#14[deleted]
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#15Personally if I was a shopify employee and I was looking at all these layoffs coinciding with rate rises with more to come, I would think liquidity will quickly dry up and opt for cash.
I am open to rebuttals but I'm hearing that we will be seeing double digit interest rates again like the 70s.
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it's terribly illiquid I'm amazed at how many people that get a significant portion of their comp as RSUs hang on to their shares after vesting. During this insane bull market it's happened to work out, but having your income and a major portion (for most tech workers) of your assets perfectly correlated is absolutely a bad investment idea, not to mention the fact that you can only trade during approved windows and…
I was working for a major tech company—definitely not a startup during dot-comb. I had some amount of vested shares which seemed a lot at the time. I spent some but held onto a few tens of K$. Stock went down from over $100 at peak to about $4. By years later had recovered to about $25–and then Dell acquired for a premium.
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Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#17I obviously don't want to give financial advice, but every time I've traded cash for stock in comp it's worked out for me in spades in the long run. This doesn't happen for everyone, it might not happen for you, but it's been very good to me on three separate occasions. Just remember that it's terribly illiquid and you're going to doubt your decision, potentially up to a decade later.
When they were printing money endlessly and rates were low, your strategy is sound. However, the house of cards is now crumbling and there is no end in sight to rate rises. My hedge fund manager friend for a private family office is saying we will see double digit rates by end of 2023. If you believe this then you know what to do. If not, you should at least think what such macro conditions would do to liquidity.
ELI Financially Illiterate. What do high Fed interest rates mean in this case?
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#18In no way do I speak for my employer, but on a personal level, this has been amazing for me and I'm so grateful the company did this.
I'm very conservative about investing, and don't want to have a large amount of my portfolio tied up in the company I work for. I'm maxed out on cash (there's a minimum equity portion at my level) and my additional income goes into a broader portfolio of investments.
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
When they were printing money endlessly and rates were low, your strategy is sound. However, the house of cards is now crumbling and there is no end in sight to rate rises. My hedge fund manager friend for a private family office is saying we will see double digit rates by end of 2023. If you believe this then you know what to do. If not, you should at least think what such macro conditions would do to liquidity.
ELI Financially Illiterate. What do high Fed interest rates mean in this case?
People invest more in companies when interest rates are low, because shoving it into lower risk vehicles becomes less profitable / likely to beat inflation. As interest rates rise, the value of safer places to put your money, such as bonds, increases.
This is the super simple version.
Re: Shopify lets staff decide cash-stock pay mix as shares dive
#20I obviously don't want to give financial advice, but every time I've traded cash for stock in comp it's worked out for me in spades in the long run. This doesn't happen for everyone, it might not happen for you, but it's been very good to me on three separate occasions. Just remember that it's terribly illiquid and you're going to doubt your decision, potentially up to a decade later.
> it's terribly illiquid I'm amazed at how many people that get a significant portion of their comp as RSUs hang on to their shares after vesting. During this insane bull market it's happened to work out, but having your income and a major portion (for most tech workers) of your assets perfectly correlated is absolutely a bad investment idea, not to mention the fact that you can only trade during approved windows and…
The best financial decision I ever made was to sell my shares after vesting.
I realised that even if I believed in the long-term business model of the company, having a significant portion of my money tied up with a single stock was not a good idea.
It would have still been a good idea even if those shares hadn't lost 90% of their value in the following year.