Workers Give Up Get-Rich Dreams, Still Value Stock Options

Jeff Solof's fantasy was never extravagant. The Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote) employee planned to cash in $370,000 worth of stock options and put his kids through college.

That was back in 2000, the heyday for tech stocks. Today, at age 44, the ordained minister only hopes his options -- most of them worthless at the moment -- will recover enough to let him retire a couple of years early and pursue his avocation.

Solof's downsized expectations are typical in Silicon Valley, where tech stocks soared in the 1990s, crashed in 2001 and bounced back from oblivion in 2003. Today, as lawmakers finalize plans that will likely limit the number of stock options available for workers, many employees now see them as a nice incentive, but probably not the road to riches. (For a view of current trends in options expensing, click here.) ...