conversation: User (jberd45): "Can you use stock as collateral for loans?  Make money with it somehow?  What's the point?"
  Self: "Just to clarify, do you not understand the concept of owning stock in general?  Or are you just confused about the specifics of an employee stock purchase plan?  "
  User (jberd45): "The concept of owning stock in general."
  Self: "Ok, well an *extremely* ELI5 explanation is that stock is something you can buy (and sell), and the price changes every day. So kind of like gas prices change - one day you go to the gas station and it's $3.50 a gallon, next week it's $3.45 a gallon, the next week it's $3.60 a gallon, etc. Stock prices go up and down every day. So the idea is that you can buy a stock for a certain price and hold onto it. If the price goes up from what you paid for it, you can sell it at the new price, and thus you've made money. \n\nActually investing would require more knowledge than this, of course, but that's the very basic idea. \n\nWith your employee stock purchase plan, it would make sense to participate if you could buy company stock at a discount. Then, depending on the terms of the plan, you could turn around and sell it immediately for a profit. So it's basically like being paid a bonus, it just requires a little more effort on your part to collect it. \n\nFor instance, your employer may let you buy stock at 15% discount. Say the actual price of your company's stock is $10 a share. You could buy a share for $8.50 (15% off of $10) and then turn right around and sell it for $10, so you made $1.50. Again, it's more complicated than that, but that's the very basic idea. \n\nDoes that kinda answer your question?  If you have the details of your employer plan you can post them and we can help you make more sense of it and how you can benefit from it. "
  FirstAmendAnon (FirstAmendAnon): "My only quibble with this good ELI5 explanation:\n\n\nWhen you buy a share of stock you are buying a piece of the company. If the companies value increases the stock price goes up.\n\nAs an employee that incentivizes you to do a good job. "
  