Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by 493rd

The existing standard deduction is scheduled to be halved and taxes increased as it stands today. The goal is to give the government as little as possible. I’d suggest finding a good CPA.

Links to the current standard deduction being halved?

[Ming the Merciless]

Originally Posted by UteChief

It depends on your situation. I think your first should be any company match. I get 6%, so I make 100% on my 401k contribution. After that, it depends. I don’t want all of my investments long term retirement. I also get a 15% discount on my ESPP. Everyone’s situation will be different.

for sure. I was referring to folks who don't have the option of a 401k.... if you can do a 401k ROTH then that's better than an IRA.

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by 493rd

The existing standard deduction is scheduled to be halved and taxes increased as it stands today. The goal is to give the government as little as possible. I’d suggest finding a good CPA.

I didn’t realize that, and I agree with what you said about different buckets. I have 20-23 years left, unless one of my investments really pays off or I get a windfall.

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by Ming the Merciless

for sure. I was referring to folks who don't have the option of a 401k.... if you can do a 401k ROTH then that's better than an IRA.

I’m not disagreeing with you, but there would still be advantages depending on income to make a tax deferred contribution. For example if you need to lower your tax burden, or if you wanted to make the biggest contribution you were able, but couldn’t max it out.

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by 493rd

The existing standard deduction is scheduled to be halved and taxes increased as it stands today. The goal is to give the government as little as possible. I’d suggest finding a good CPA.

I’m lucky. My boss is a CPA, so I can discuss it with her.

[Ming the Merciless]

Originally Posted by 493rd

The existing standard deduction is scheduled to be halved and taxes increased as it stands today. The goal is to give the government as little as possible. I’d suggest finding a good CPA.

going back to itemized deductions I guess!

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by UteChief

Thanks Rainman, that makes a lot of sense for your situation. I’d love to hear others. An advisor started doing this for my SIL and I can’t figure out why!

I think it has a place with variable incomes if incomes are down.

I think there is a case to be made that if you want out of some investments that have a loss in a taxable account you could do Roth conversions for the loss amount. But that sounds…painful.

I think there is a case where you lose an expense and could do Roth conversions for that amount without much impact on your life. For instance, if you pay off your mortgage you could do a Roth conversion for the P&I of your mortgage and not feel it too much. But my (not very confident, but it’s what I’d do) opinion is if you have the time horizon to capitalize on ROTH benefits, you’re probably better off to take whatever tax savings you are trying to utilize and stick the cash amount of the tax savings into a taxable brokerage (or increase contributions to a qualified plan if you have room).

I recently made this ridiculous spreadsheet that evaluated some qualified plan options, the theory of the exercise was to maximize total assets given a set cash flow. My bias was to put everything into a Roth optioned 401K, but in point of fact, sticking it in a traditional 401K and investing the tax savings into a taxable brokerage outperformed the Roth + tax across every variable I looked at. Thats all assuming current tax rates which 493 points out could change soon.

I’m not ready to take the leap on the basis of potential tax changes like 493 is suggesting, but it’s probably the smart play. The 2017 tax cuts were signify d if they go the other way Mr T predicts PAIN. But who the hell knows what will happen. I wouldn’t have predicted Trump of all people would sign off on SALT limitations and as much as democrats rail on capital gains tax they never do anything about it. So I’m not willing to eat tax on the current betting on the future with tax. But I’m almost certainly wrong.

[493rd]

Originally Posted by UteChief

I’m lucky. My boss is a CPA, so I can discuss it with her.

Great resource to have for sure!!

[493rd]

Originally Posted by Ming the Merciless

going back to itemized deductions I guess!

Yup, assuming the Congress doesn’t get something done. We’ll see, we know how those clowns work!

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by 493rd

Yup, assuming the Congress doesn’t get something done. We’ll see, we know how those clowns work!

I’ll miss that standard deduction.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by UteChief

I’ll miss that standard deduction.

I’ll trade you the standard deduction if I get to keep the tax brackets and rates.

[lewdog]

I was going to post this in the stock trading thread but it doesn't get as much action as this one.

I'm a skilled enough trader to know when to take a trade and when to get out. My problem at this point in life is a time crunch. Making time to scan and find setups is proving to be challenging. I just don't have the time to make this a consistent habit daily.

I am willing to pay for a service that sends me stock trading alerts but there are SO MANY out there, and tons of scams. Does anyone here actually use something they find valuable? I know we have a few day traders here and I was wondering if they would share some insights for me.

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I was going to post this in the stock trading thread but it doesn't get as much action as this one.

I'm a skilled enough trader to know when to take a trade and when to get out. My problem at this point in life is a time crunch. Making time to scan and find setups is proving to be challenging. I just don't have the time to make this a consistent habit daily.

I am willing to pay for a service that sends me stock trading alerts but there are SO MANY out there, and tons of scams. Does anyone here actually use something they find valuable? I know we have a few day traders here and I was wondering if they would share some insights for me.

Are the alerts through your broker insufficient? Also, you could set up good til cancelled trades or there is an option to set up multiple trades on a ticket. It’s been a while so I don’t recall the name.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by UteChief

Are the alerts through your broker insufficient? Also, you could set up good til cancelled trades or there is an option to set up multiple trades on a ticket. It’s been a while so I don’t recall the name.

Sorry, I might not have been clear.

I’m talking stock trading. Paying for someone to send me setups and trade ideas. I have no problem setting trades, it’s taking the time to find good day trades or swing trades. Plenty of services that will do this but there’s so many I don’t know which are real and useful.

I do plenty of basic and passive investing in other accounts, this is just for a trading account I’ve had for years.

[UteChief]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Sorry, I might not have been clear.

I’m talking stock trading. Paying for someone to send me setups and trade ideas. I have no problem setting trades, it’s taking the time to find good day trades or swing trades. Plenty of services that will do this but there’s so many I don’t know which are real and useful.

I do plenty of basic and passive investing in other accounts, this is just for a trading account I’ve had for years.

I wondered if Motley Fool is worth it.