<prompt> Human: My company allows you to put 10 of your pay in an ESPP, and you get the stock at a 15 discount. If you do this year after year AND gain 8 per year, is this the same as a 23 return?  <response>: If you can sell the stock immediately on buying you should.You will then get better than a 15 return pre-tax.Heres an example. Say your income is 120kyr. You put 1k into the scheme per month. At the end of the year your 12k buys 14,120 worth of company stock. If you immediately sell, you will get back the 12k you put in and use it to fund next years contributions to the ESPP, and 2,120 profit.2,120 profit on 6,000 average investment you didnt have 12k in there all year long is a 35 return. Plus, going forward, you keep the 12k in a savings account until you need to contribute it to the scheme actually until you need to live on it so you can contribute to the scheme from payroll so you get 1.2 return on an average 6k for the year, which is another 72yr, which brings the total return to 36.5. Thats a pretty good return. Which is why ESPPs are usually your second best available investment after 401k matches and why you should max them out.Now, if you cant sell for a year, your return gets lower and riskier.It gets riskier, because the price of the stock can go down as well as up.The return gets lower, because the average amount of capital you have invested in the plan will more than double you cant take your money out for 2 years, so your max investment will be 24k and your average investment will be 12k Oh, no, it wont, you only get 12k back per year after year 2, so you have 12k tied up permanently and another half of 12k so your average investment is 16k. Your profit from the discount will be the same per year, but, the return will be less, because you had to tie up more money to get it. Sure you might get a return from the appreciation of the stock, but, if that was 8 your total return per year would be 14 from the discount, plus 8 from the stock gain, for a total return of 22yr, which is worse.All these returns are pre-tax. The discount gets taxed at income tax rates, the gain on the stock if you hold for more than a year gets taxed at long term capital gains tax rates.If not forced to hold the stock. Sell immediately and put the after tax profits into your retirement accounts. You will likely get a better return, and you will be more diversified and lower risk.Good luck. 