Creative Investment Idea for Baseball Fans, Economists
By Jessica Stillman

January 23rd, 2008 @ 10:22 am

Categories: General

Tags: Earnings, Salary, Mike, IPO, Benefits, Recruitment & Selection, Investment, Financial Accounting, Financial Services, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Finance, Jessica Stillman

Imagine you’ve ponied up for an MBA, PhD, or a decade of world-class sports coaching. You’re looking for a job, but you could use some cash now. In the future, you’re likely to have substantial earnings but that’s no help to you at the moment. Or is it?

The economics blog Marginal Revolution today offers another post in its ongoing series, ‘Markets in Everything,’ and points out that if businesses can sell shares to raise capital, why not individuals?

Randy Newsom, relief pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, is selling 4% of his future major league salary. There are 2,500 shares in the IPO so each share gets you a claim to 0.0016% of his future salary including bonuses. Shares sell for $20 each.

Mike Makowsky… a rookie GMU PhD on the job market, is also entertaining offers for a share of his future salary. Mike is feeling rather risk-averse so as an insider, I recommend you buy now. Mike has a great career ahead of him and this opportunity won’t last long!

Of course selling shares of future earnings is a creative way to raise money, but it might just be a creative investment opportunity as well. In the the current market climate, supporting a rookie with great potential might be a fun and relatively stress-free way to take a break from agonizing over the stock ticker.