Celery Soup
Stock options: water
Recipe source: Made it up
Serves 2 generously as a main course
Ingredients
1 large bunch celery, roughly chopped with the bottom part removed
4 cups water
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 small potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 lemon (the juice is an ESSENTIAL flavor booster at the end)
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot. Add the garlic and onions and cook for 2 minutes but don’t brown them.
Add the celery and cumin and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the water, bring to boil and then cook for 10 minutes. Bring down to a simmer and cook for another 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Use an immersion blender or transfer the soup to a food processor (once cooled) to make it smooth and silky.
Serve with a healthy squeeze of lemon.
The other kind of stock options:
My company just announced they are going public! Help, what do I do now?
First of all, take a deep breath. This is likely a good thing for you. Hopefully you have a trusted financial advisor to give you unbiased investment and tax advice to help you through this roller coaster. If you’re reading this and you don’t have an advisor and there’s a chance your company could go public in the next few years, get yourself an advisor ASAP. Decisions you make now could be worth HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.
Alright, so there’s going to be an IPO. You probably have a last opportunity to exercise some of your vested shares. It might be a good idea to do that since often the stock price could go up when trading begins. By exercising ahead of the IPO, you could save a lot in taxes. The most important thing to do is to stay calm and don’t freeze up. Don’t do NOTHING. As an employee or former employee, the company will likely impose some kind of restriction on the sale so generally, it makes sense to take advantage of a splashy IPO debut and sell what you are allowed to do - usually, it’s something like 20% of your shares.