Which ETF to sell if you need cash

[Anonymous]

Want to buy a car in cash, we have a few mutual funds VXUS and VTI. VTI is up by a lot more than VXUS, if we sell VXUS we will minimize our taxes because the cost basis is pretty close to the current value. If we sell VTI we will have “sold high” and locked in some decent gains, but owe a lot more tax.

[Anonymous]

Why is this hard for you to figure out? Sell the one with minimal cap gains.

[Anonymous]

Are they long-term capital gains (held more than a year)? If so, your tax rate will be lower than your income tax rate depending on your income.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/capital-gains-tax-rates

[Anonymous]

Vxus, obviously. Minimize the tax hit. Also, VXUS has underperformed for years. Probably a good move to get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

I think you are suffering from the idea that your winner maybe doesn’t have room to run while vxus is ready to pop.

It never works that way. Winners tend to keep winning and losers keep losing.

[Anonymous]

You don't sell stocks to buy a car. Use the money in your checking, savings, MM account or short term bond funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vxus, obviously. Minimize the tax hit. Also, VXUS has underperformed for years. Probably a good move to get rid of it.

Hmm, a large school of thought recommends keeping international exposure though. It’s true that VXUS has underperformed but there have been periods of it outperforming US markets. We’re currently 80/20 VTI/VXUS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't sell stocks to buy a car. Use the money in your checking, savings, MM account or short term bond funds.

What if we need a car very soon (next 3 months) but it would take 8-12 months to save enough cash?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't sell stocks to buy a car. Use the money in your checking, savings, MM account or short term bond funds.

Oh thanks…I forgot about the $50k just sitting in my checking account.

Thanks DCUM!

[Anonymous]

Sell the VXUS, but what's with the funds? Buy individual stocks if you want to make money. So many are at their lows at no fault of their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sell the VXUS, but what's with the funds? Buy individual stocks if you want to make money. So many are at their lows at no fault of their own.

Terrible advice. You know that extremely high-paid money managers who buy individual stocks for a living still can't beat index fund returns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sell the VXUS, but what's with the funds? Buy individual stocks if you want to make money. So many are at their lows at no fault of their own.

Please tell us what to buy oh great seer. I am readying my settlement fund now to buy whatever you say.

[Anonymous]

Funny enough, the only person who I listen to with respect to buying individual stocks is my 18 year old kid who is a STEM guru.

I bought some NVIDIA in Fall of 2022 only because he gave me a 10 minute lecture about why ChatGPT 4.0 = huge jump in demand for NVIDIA. He was aware of the new release of ChatGPT and how much better it was compared to prior versions.

However, he understands that semiconductor stocks are really more like commodity stocks vs. normal tech companies. Waiting for him to give me the sell call.

He was also early to AMD and what they were doing in the server market. I didn't listen to him on that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sell the VXUS, but what's with the funds? Buy individual stocks if you want to make money. So many are at their lows at no fault of their own.

The best part of this is “at no fault of their own”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sell the VXUS, but what's with the funds? Buy individual stocks if you want to make money. So many are at their lows at no fault of their own.

The markets are at record highs. Which stocks are so low and will easily triple?