I have a Vanguard 401k that I don’t touch and just contribute to regularly
I have a Vanguard 401k that I don’t touch and just contribute to regularly
1) good for you. That is the way to do it, learn as you go and do so with smaller amounts at stake. Perfect way to build your expertise for the long term.
2) Be careful of wash sales when you sell your losers but buy them back within 30 days of the sale date (either before the sell date or after). THis can be confusing and gets even more complicated if doing it between cash account and a tax deferred account (for the re-purchase within 30 days), but it has large tax consequences so keep track and know how to file your taxes.
3) as for selling a winner to offset the losses, it's up to you, either can be successful strategy, and depends a lot on where you think the stock is headed.
-SP
casual lurker wrote:
Yes thanks, I have some Apple, Microsoft, and especially Tesla that I could sell. Lol I would probably buy them back, except for maybe the Tesla.
Sure, glad to help. There is a Wall Street adage “you’ll never go broke taking a profit.”
Sally Vix wrote:
agip wrote:
all time highs again today for the SP500
Igy boldly calling it now - a 12,000 Dow. When? Between now and eternity!
By the end of 2021.
2021 will be a disaster.
More stringent and longer lock-outs will destroy what is left of the economy.
Nothing for the people so homelessness will soar.
The market will have to eventually reflect this disastrous economy.
Downside risk to the Dow is well below 12,000.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
casual lurker wrote:
Yes thanks, I have some Apple, Microsoft, and especially Tesla that I could sell. Lol I would probably buy them back, except for maybe the Tesla.
Sure, glad to help. There is a Wall Street adage “you’ll never go broke taking a profit.”
And there's another adage "Let your winners ride."
If selling would put you in the short term capital gains, i definitely would wait. But other than that, stick with your game plan.
Most of the economy isn’t even that locked down lol. People ordering tons of take out, shopping in malls at like 60% capacity.
Realistically the cases are gonna hammer hard through the end of January, lots more dead, and then slowly fizzle out into spring.
Vaccinations will keep steaming ahead. Numbers keep dropping into end of May, when normies can start opting to get it.
All accepting normies can be vaccinated by July, when I have predicted that things will go back to relative normal.
One little surge next late Fall and that’s it.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/12/28/bill-belichick-smashes-phone-sideline-failed-coach-challenge-patriots-bills/Stanley Morgan wrote:
Sure. Where do you want to start?
Go, Pats!
Your lover boy has some growth issues.
?
Go Fats!
What is your infatuation with me?
Go, Pats!
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Downside risk to the Dow is well below 12,000.
But what’s the upside potential? ?
And considering you’ve been saying this same thing for years (when the Dow was under 18,000 and has since risen above 30,000), you are a good reminder to take these “sky is falling” warnings with skepticism.
Stanley Morgan wrote:
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/12/28/bill-belichick-smashes-phone-sideline-failed-coach-challenge-patriots-bills/Your lover boy has some growth issues.
?
Go Fats!
What is your infatuation with me?
Go, Pats!
Hilarious you post on growth issues right after your lover boy idol once again displays his immaturity. Perect role model for you. ?
Igy, still holding the bear market ETFs you mentioned earlier, if you don't mind me asking.
Since we have been talking about tax loss harvesting, might be something to think about....
?
... and bitcoin has started ramping back up in the last couple of hours.
Need any more ideas?
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Stanley Morgan wrote:
What is your infatuation with me?
Go, Pats!
Hilarious you post on growth issues right after your lover boy idol once again displays his immaturity. Perect role model for you. ?
I was not the one who brought up personal growth issues. And unlike you, I did not use any projection.
Go, Pats!
I already did something stupid, I sold something then bought it again within 30 days because I second-guessed myself, then second-guessed my second guess and sold it that same day! I am still learning.
I didn’t think it would be so complicated. I guess I can’t take the original loss, but I add that loss to the cost basis of the second purchase, or something like that. I will figure it out, hopefully, but the directions are confusing. Please tell me that this year I can take the loss on the second sale.
What a way to learn. I know why people just buy and hold, but I did make some good trades this year, I just hope I didn’t f up too badly with that wash sale. Yes I am young, and fwiw all of my circle of friends have some crypto. I have bitcoin and ethereum, but not much.
casual lurker wrote:
I already did something stupid, I sold something then bought it again within 30 days because I second-guessed myself, then second-guessed my second guess and sold it that same day! I am still learning.
I didn’t think it would be so complicated. I guess I can’t take the original loss, but I add that loss to the cost basis of the second purchase, or something like that. I will figure it out, hopefully, but the directions are confusing. Please tell me that this year I can take the loss on the second sale.
What a way to learn. I know why people just buy and hold, but I did make some good trades this year, I just hope I didn’t f up too badly with that wash sale. Yes I am young, and fwiw all of my circle of friends have some crypto. I have bitcoin and ethereum, but not much.
i do crap like that all the time. My short term trading is almost universally for sh!t. It only turns good if i wait long enough and a poorly timed buy turns positive eventually (though it wasn't the right time to buy in the first place).
As for the wash sale, take some heart in the fact that you can take the loss but you just can't do it right away. You don't lose it. It just gets wrapped into the cost basis of the purchase you did within thirty days of the sale.
SO it just gets delayed.
That is unless the subsequent purchase was in a tax defered account, and then technically you are screwed, but i bet most don't know or follow that rule.
But reading your comment more closely, you can take all the loss when you finally sell the holding, and since you are fully out of the position, you wouldn't lose any of the capital loss. Trust me. You are fine if you are fully out of the position as you describe. You can claim the full loss.
Take heart lurker, I have also done the same. You can learn a lot about yourself quickly when investing/trading. Just hope it doesn’t cost you that much.
I have had wash sales, and have just followed the numbers the brokerage has given me on my statements. If you bought and sold again right away, you should be good, if it was the same number of stocks. If less then wash rules apply to only the number you bought the second time; if more, then wash rules apply to only the number you bought the first time, I believe. I could be wrong, it has been a long time since I have done that.
I too sold a loss this year, and have sold/will sell other things to make up for it. I will also be selling my pypl bitcoin to just close out 2020, but I will keep the funds in my pypl cash account and buy it back early next year, when the price looks right. Looking good, back up around 27,6k?.
Btw to everyone else, cryptos are a curse—you can trade 24/7!! Sounds great, right? In a way it is, in a way it isn’t. Be careful what you wish for.
I heard swapping Bitcoin for XRP is the trade of the century?
Mas, I know, right.
Literally, when i actually owned enough of the stuff to matter, a couple years back, i got sick from getting up in the middle of the night and checking on it.
As for end of the year stuff, i am going to get hit with some taxes on cap. gains. I have only one loser to sell but it won't offset much, so there's that.
Been a good year for me. Considering taking some of it off the table going forward, but i always say that and never do. We'll see this time.
Flagpole wrote:
Bummbull wrote:
So most people should invest the way Flagpole does it by living below your means and invest the rest continuously month after month and will definitely reach financial freedom as the market always goes up in time. Always does.
1) CORRECT!
2) Change "most" to "vast majority", and it's even more right. Those who don't need to invest the way I do are those who...have an enormous salary (I'm talking millions each year for years and years...think Major League baseball players), people who are retired and now just withdrawing money, people who are independently wealthy (through inheritance, divorce, whatever). If you have anywhere from below average income all the way up to a million dollars a year even, you would be best served my following my strategies.
3) Remember that my way DOES allow people to invest in individual stocks or anything else really. You just have to meet some criteria first...NO debt at all, a paid-for house OR enough extra money to handle rent increases the rest of your life, a million dollars minimum in the stock market, continuing to put in 15% or more into your retirement accounts if working. Have all that, THEN you can invest in individual stocks or a restaurant or whatever else.
Personally, I couldn't live like Flagpole. Having to scrimp and save for 40-50 years before even thinking about having enough to retire is not for me. Fortunately, I got a great job out of college which led to some lucrative opportunities early in life. I was able to spend on travel, nice homes, etc. throughout my life and still save and retire early.
Flagpole's strategy is great for someone who perhaps didn't make wise decisions on their education choices and career path. People like that HAVE to save and grow every dollar in order to be able to retire since their lifetime income is so low. They can't take investment risks because there is no way to recover from loses without the ability to generate significant future income. One loss could devastate them. These people have to play it conservatively and hope everything works in their favor.