Should I exercise my options? When should I exercise my options?
If you work in a private company, I’m betting these questions go through your head with annoying frequency. And they’re hard questions to answer! Will the company succeed? Will the stock be worth anything? A lot? It’s all crystal-ball territory and therefore there are very few obvious or knowable answers.
As is part of my weekend tradition, this past weekend I read Jason Zweig’s column (paywall) in the Wall Street Journal. (And yes, to answer your unasked question: I do revel in embodying some stereotypes of financial professionals.)
We’re pretty good at saving for the long term (retirement). We have our 401(k)s and IRAs. We’re pretty good at saving for now. We have cash in our bank accounts. But what do we do for the *decades* between now and retirement? How do we save and invest for that?
When you log on to your 401(k) website at, say, Fidelity, do you see a mysterious mention of a “BrokerageLink®”? Have you ever wondered what it is and whether you should use it?
A curious thing is happening when big tech companies, like Lyft and Uber, go IPO nowadays. I mean, aside from the fact that their stock immediately starts losing value…although that figures into my point, which is:
