A friend of mine recently left his job after a decade at a multinational company.
Before his last working day, he logged into his brokerage account and sold his company shares.
The amount he received was enough to fully repay his father’s outstanding loan on a shop. Not partially — fully. And after that repayment, he still had enough left to transfer fresh capital to his father’s account to keep the business running.
I listened to this quietly. And I kept thinking — most salaried employees have no idea they are sitting on this kind of wealth through their own company’s share purchase plan.
Let me explain exactly how this works — and why two people with the same salary ended up in completely different financial positions after 10 years.
What Is an Employee Share Purchase Plan?
Many large multinational companies — especially those listed on international stock exchanges — offer their employees something called an Employee Share Purchase Plan, commonly known as ESPP.
The basic structure is straightforward:
A fixed percentage of your basic salary is deducted every month automatically. The company matches this contribution. So for every ₹100 you put in, your employer puts in another ₹100. This combined amount goes toward purchasing your company’s shares.
That company match is your instant 100% return on your own contribution — before the market even moves a single rupee.
Many plans also allow a voluntary top-up — you can invest additional money beyond the mandatory deduction. The company may or may not match this top-up depending on the plan terms.
There is typically no lock-in period. You can sell whenever you want.
Most Indian salaried employees who work at MNCs have access to something like this. Many enrolled during onboarding and never thought about it again.
Two Colleagues. Same Salary. 10 Years. Very Different Outcomes.
This is where my friend’s story gets interesting.
He told me about two colleagues at his company — both joined around the same time, similar designations, similar salaries, both enrolled in the share purchase plan from Day 1.
Colleague A treated the shares like an annual bonus. Every year, once the shares accumulated to a decent amount, he sold them. Took the money. Spent it or parked it in his savings account. He felt smart — he was booking profits regularly, never letting greed get the better of him.
Colleague B did two things differently.
First, he never sold. He let the shares accumulate year after year without touching them.
Second, he did the voluntary top-up. He contributed additional money from his salary every month — beyond the mandatory deduction — without any company match. Just his own money, quietly buying company shares at market price every single month.
And then he did the most powerful thing of all — he essentially forgot about it. He did not check the value obsessively every month. He did not panic when markets fell. He did not second-guess himself. He just let it sit and kept doing his job.
What Happened After 10 Years
When Colleague B decided to move on, he checked his share account before his last working day.
The number he saw — he had not expected it to be that large.
He sold everything. The proceeds were enough to fully repay his father’s loan on a shop that had been a financial burden on the family for years. After clearing the loan, he still had enough remaining to give his father fresh working capital to run the business.
One decade of quiet discipline. One account he barely looked at. One decision that changed his family’s financial situation permanently.
Colleague A? He had enjoyed his annual “profits” for 10 years. Felt smart every time he sold. But had nothing accumulated at the end of it.
Same plan. Same company. Same 10 years. Completely different financial outcome.
| Year | Colleague A — sells every year | Colleague B — never sells, tops up |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Enrolls in ESPP. Year-end — sells all shares. Feels smart. | Enrolls in ESPP. Opts for voluntary top-up. Does not sell. |
| Year 2 | Sells again. Books “profit.” | Still holding. Top-up running automatically. |
| Year 3 | Sells. Buys a gadget. | Corpus looks small. Tempting to sell. Does not sell. |
| Year 4 | Sells. Parks money in savings account. | Company match + top-up compounding quietly. |
| Year 5 | Sells. Feels disciplined by “booking regular profits.” | Corpus now looks like a decent emergency fund. Still does not touch it. |
| Year 6 | Sells. Same pattern every year. | Top-up + company match + market growth all compounding together. |
| Year 7 | Sells. Wonders why he never has real savings. | Does not even check the balance this year. |
| Year 8 | Sells. Spends on vacation. | Compounding doing the heavy lifting silently. |
| Year 9 | Sells. Nothing significant to show. | Almost forgets the account exists. |
| Year 10 | Leaves company. Minimal shares. No real corpus. | Sells everything before last working day. Repays father’s loan in full. Transfers fresh capital to father’s business. |
| Result | 10 years of “smart” selling. Nothing accumulated. | 10 years of doing nothing. One life-changing corpus. |
What Made the Difference — Three Specific Decisions
He never sold the company-matched shares.
The company match is essentially free money added to your investment from Day 1. Selling it annually is like withdrawing your PF contributions every year and spending them. The compounding never gets a chance to work. Colleague A was destroying his own wealth creation cycle every 12 months without realising it.
He did the voluntary top-up.
No company match on the additional contribution — but he was effectively running a Systematic Investment Plan into his own company’s stock every month. Automatically. Without any effort. Without needing discipline beyond the initial decision to opt in.
He stayed for 10 years without watching the screen.
This is the part most people underestimate. Compounding needs time and it needs you to leave it alone. At year 3 the corpus looks small and tempting to liquidate. At year 5 it looks like a decent emergency fund. At year 10 it looks like your father’s debt cleared and his business refunded.
The only difference between year 3 and year 10 is patience.
Questions Every Salaried Employee Should Ask About Their ESPP
If your company offers a share purchase plan — and many MNC employers do — here are the questions worth finding answers to:
Does my company match my contribution? If yes, what percentage?
Is there a lock-in period after purchase?
Can I do a voluntary top-up beyond the mandatory deduction?
What happens to my shares if I resign — do I have a window to sell before your last working day?
What are the tax implications when I sell — is it treated as short term or long term capital gain?
Most employees never ask these questions. The plan runs quietly in the background, accumulating — or not accumulating — depending purely on whether you decided to sell or hold.
One Important Caveat
Company shares are equity. They carry market risk.
If your company’s stock price falls significantly over your tenure, your ESPP corpus will reflect that. This is not a guaranteed return product. The company match improves your effective purchase price — but it does not eliminate market risk entirely.
This is why financial advisors typically recommend not having more than 10-15% of your total investment portfolio in your own employer’s stock. Concentration in a single company — especially your own employer — adds risk beyond normal market volatility.
Diversify beyond your ESPP. But do not ignore it either.
What I Took Away From This Story
My friend told me this casually over a conversation. He was not boasting. He was almost surprised himself.
He said — “I just never sold. That’s all I did.”
That’s it. No stock picking. No market timing. No financial expertise. Just a payroll deduction running quietly for 10 years, a voluntary top-up he set and forgot, and the discipline to not press the sell button every time he saw a profit.
If you are a salaried employee at a company that offers an ESPP or any form of share purchase plan — log in today. Check your balance. Read the terms. Understand what you are holding.
You might be surprised by what a decade of quiet discipline looks like in rupees.
Key Takeaways
— Many MNC employers offer Employee Share Purchase Plans with company matching contributions
— The company match is effectively an instant 100% return on your mandatory contribution
— Voluntary top-ups without company match still work as a forced monthly equity investment
— Selling annually destroys compounding — Colleague A learned this over 10 years
— Staying invested without watching the screen is the hardest and most valuable thing you can do
— Check your HR portal today — you may already be enrolled in something you have forgotten about
The story in this post is based on a real experience shared with me by a friend. Details have been changed to protect identities. This is not financial advice. Please consult a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions.
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