Employee stock plans. Bonuses with options. It is easy for some employees to amass big holdings of their employer's stock. But keeping a big chunk of your portfolio in a single stock is risky: If the company hits a rough patch, your investments will, too.
Marlene Roth, a longtime employee of MCI and Worldcom, found that out the hard way. She said she had nearly all of her non-401(k) investments in company stock and options, which became worthless after Worldcom filed for bankruptcy. In total, she estimates she lost around $800,000. "Once the bankruptcy came out — that's when it became clear that, yeah, it's all gone," she said. "All the savings were gone."
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