Thanks regarding Roth 401k. Never heard of them before.
ESPP varies by company, I’ve seen them run as quickly as quarterly, where we bought shares at 15% below the lower of the quarterly starting price and the quarterly ending price. Shares where immediately sellable upon receipt, which took about 2 business days to show up in your account once established with tax benefits if held 2 years (that whole below market buy was free if held two years), whole not available thing really amounted to three months of with holdings. Once you have the stock you can sell without getting locked out.
And yes, it’s a pretty big tax incentive to sit on the stock for two years when you bought it $40 and its trading at $50 or $60. Because with ESPP that early sale gets reported as income on your W2′ Make sure your tax guy doesn’t double report it
[quote=flu]
The stock can not be rolled immediately. Espp usually has a 6month waiting window, and if you do withdraw early, you will be locked out of the plan for the duration of the offering period. And when you do sell, before 2 years you will be taxed at ordinary income which is roughly 30-35% I believe, fed and state.[/quote]
Apples to apples with other wage slaves, just compare discretionary after state and fed taxes. Everything else is variable. At high income, ESPP, 401k, deferred comp, you can’t afford to say no too but they can crimp on a monthly run.
