Hey guys,
Long time listener, first time caller. I need some help, and I’m hoping you guys can push me in the right direction. I was a first-25 employee at the company that is now MNTN. I worked there for 5 years, but due to a literal workplace tragedy left me disfigured, and traumatized the entire offices, I was offered a settlement package, and asked to find new employment. They threw me 6,000 shares of the stock (they had not yet IPO’d), and a decent payout. The cash lasted me about a year, but due to the nature of the incident, I was left with severe scars on my face, and although I have a great resume, it was extremely difficult for me to find work in the same sector. I’ve had a tough go of life since then.
Fast forward to 3 months ago, and I get a letter saying that my shares of MNTN had vested. I opened a Fidelity account, and started to weight my options. Sadly, almost every single day since the stocks came into my possession, the stock has plummeted in value. This is literally every penny that I have to my name, and although I’m employed at the moment, my annual salary is almost identical to the stock’s current value (around $60k). $100,000 would change my life forever, and I set this physiological floor hoping that the company would swell to that amount, and I could cash out and start to improve my life (and hopefully begin investing seriously).
But since watching my stock’s value drop by 30% in the past month, I’m starting to panic. $50k would just barely get me out of debt, and although that is an achievement in and of itself, the prospect of losing out on the $100,000 I initially had, it would be a huge physiological loss. The company boasts amazing performance, and is listed as a Strong Buy with almost all analysts, but for some reason no one is buying.
What should I do? Should I hold out until the end of the year, and pray that the general public starts to see its potential, or should I cut tail and walk away with just under $60k, and get out of debt? There’s also a sense of sadness in knowing that I contributed to the company’s success, but that I’ll be forced to walk away with almost nothing. That is for sure a factor in why I haven’t sold yet. I just don’t know what to do, and I can’t understand why more investors are so hesitant to invest… Any advice you guys could give me would be sincerely appreciated.
