Situation: I want to exit some positions that are bright, BRIGHT red (I shouldn't be picking individual stocks, these are literally the only individual stocks I've ever purchased). But I think the result would be more losses than I can write off against regular income because I rarely realize any gains.
My understanding is I can only deduct up to 3k of losses against regular income, so I was thinking I could generate some capital gains by selling off something I have some gains in, then using the combined proceeds from both sales (sale of the stocks that had losses, and the ETFs that had gains) to buy into a different ETF. My goal is to have a net zero capital gains (or ideally, right around -$3000).
But given that currently all I have are a couple broad-spectrum ETFs (VOO, VIG, MGK), I'm not sure the implications if I sell from one and buy into a different one. They all have some significant overlap with each other.
I have literally never sold anything since I started investing a few years ago, so this is literally my first time ever thinking about this. Please explain in a way that makes me feel a little less stupid, if possible.
Leave a Reply