New Job and New Investment Opportunities

Written by The Dividend Guy on October 22, 2005

I have just accepted a new position with an oil and gas company in Calgary. Career-wise, this is a great move for me. It is even better from an investment perspective.

At my ‘old’ job, the employer sponsored investment programs were extremely thin. As you will see in the following table, the company match components were very poor compared to this new position. All-in, I will be pretty much doubling what I invest every year - primarily due to the employer matching of invested funds.

This is how the new program compares to my old one:

Old Job
New Job
Pension Plan My Contribution: 3%
Employer Contribution: 2%		 My Contribution: 2%
Employer Contribution: 4%
Employee Stock
Purchase Plan		 My Contribution: 5%
Employer Contribution: 0%
(Stock is purchased at 85% of market price)		 My Contribution: 5%
(Used to purchase company stock)
Employer Contribution: 5%
(Used to purchase benefits or direct to an investment account)
Stock Options New hire grant
Grants on promotion
Have never been able to exercise due to constantly being under-water		 New hire grant
Annual grants
Many employees sitting on large gains


As you can see, from a purely investment related perspective, I am going to be much better off at this new job. I am still working out the funds I will invest in for the pension (the only option for the pension plan is mutual funds managed by large pension fund managers), and how I am going to handle the additional 5% that is given to me to invest. What I would like to do is transfer cash from the company provided brokerage account (we need to use a specific broker) to my CSA account and continue to invest in my dividend paying stocks. This all needs to be worked out and I will update you when I get more details.

Obviously, I did not choose this career change based on the benefits to my dividend-based investment philosophy. The opportunity from a career perspective is wonderful. However, it is an added bonus that this company cares so much about its employee’s abilities to build wealth. I look forward to providing updates as this progresses.

I would be very interested to hear about your investment opportunities you have with your employers. If you feel comfortable, please lay out some of the details in the comments below. I look forward to hearing about it.


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3 Comments so far

  1. Hazzard October 24, 2005 3:51 pm

    Here’s my employers package:

    401K: 75% match up to 8% of income
    Pension: Fully funded by employer
    Health: Fully funded by employer for all in immediate family
    Cash bonus: Up to 4 weeks pay per year
    Education: All tuition/books/fees paid by employer. No maximum
    Stock: Occasional share grants

    This is a pretty big company and who knows how long these benefits will continue, but they have been around for a LONG time.
    Hazzard
    http://www.everybodylovesyourmoney.com

  2. Canadian Capitalist October 24, 2005 5:06 pm

    Congratulations! The benefits look very good.

  3. The Dividend Guy Blog » Update - New Job and My Dividend Investments October 25, 2005 2:42 pm

    […] I just spent the last few hours filling out a bunch of forms for my new pension plan and investment accounts that are part of the package at my new job. As discussed in this post, I receive a pension account and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan - which can be either an RSP or regular Cash account, or both. […]

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