Conserve Your Cash

For people who work in private, venture-backed companies, stock options may represent the most potentially valuable asset they have. Note that key word–potentially. Stock options aren't a sure thing. For every private company that goes public or is sold for high price, many more are liquidated and the people who own common stock or exercised their options lose 100% of their investment.

When people change jobs, they usually have 90 days to decide if t