It's a HUGE - make that GIANT - mistake to invest money is the stock of the company you work for... essentially ending up with "all of your eggs in one basket". Ask the folks at WorldCom... or PG&E...or Chrysler... or Conseco... or Enron... or Washington Mutual...
When I say to invest in companies you understand and know... I'm talking about if you shop at Home Depot or Lowe's... or you love your Ford... or use AT&T or Verizon.
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Originally Posted by 68Cuda
Greg - I have been in the semiconductor field since 1997, prior to that I was an auto mechanic. Basically I am a technician that went to college and became an engineer. I have been riding the roller coaster of this industry for a while. In 2003 the factory I was working for made semiconductor capital equipment shut down permanently and I was out. Pre-9/11 we were trying to cope w/ growth with over 250 employees and working to expand from $5M per month to $40M per month to fill demand. In 2002 our sales were about $5M total and they ended up shutting down MFG and dropping in several steps down to about 60 employees. At the end of May 2003 I was the only person left in the building as I transferred all the design and documentation to the parent company. I took the opportunity to go to graduate school rather than transfer to the main office in Kyushu. In 2006 I left a "quiet" research engineer job at the university to go back to the semiconductor field, this time in the more "stable" MFG side of the chip business. I was rewarded in 2007 when that factory was shut down. Fortunately I was able to find another position in the company at a smaller facility at the same site.
Investing in this industry scares me because I understand the business and consider myself a long term investor, it is bad enough that my income is somewhat dependent on this sector.
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