Work place share incentive

[Scotmum83]

Part of my husbands package is a share plan that his company contribututes to, so for every share he buys they give him 2 up to a limit each month. Now that he has been paying into this for over 5 years the shares are starting to become available to sell back. We're not sure if we should just leave them in the account long term or start selling and maybe overpay the mortgage.

Just really wanting to see what others do with theirs and do you see it as a long term investment or do you take the money out as soon as its available.

Thanks

There will be capital gains tax to pay on the sales - so he will need to do a tax return each year

You should consider taking advice from a financial advisor

I sold mine as soon as I cld and made some decent easy money. I never saw it as a long term investment.

DH has kept his, we get a dividend on them which amounts to about £5000 a year. We won’t sell them unless absolutely necessary.

They are a combination of free shares from back in the day…share matching shares and share investment things.

Is it a company that might be bought for big bucks in the future? If so, holding them until such a sale would probably be wiser.

Slightly different I know but I have been doing Sharesave for 30-years now.
Simple enough, on maturity I either take the money I have paid in or take the shares and sell (a couple of times I have had to spread the selling to avoid CGT).
Also have free shares and ones bought through company incentive scheme (free of tax & NI). These are a long-term investment (some I have had for 20-years) and the dividends get added into the housekeeping. One day I will sell them but no plans to do that for many years yet.

I'd sell and diversify. He is financially tied to the company through his salary so best not to have a large portion of his investments tied to it to.

That's subject to tax considerations and if he doesn't have a strong positive view of the companies future prospects from working there.