While lower - income individuals don't typically invest a lot of
money in taxable brokerage accounts, this tax benefit could help out retirees who have little or no taxable income.
Plus, the added benefit of flexibility in using the
cash in a taxable brokerage account for anything (as opposed to only education related expenses in the 529 plan) makes the risk of over funding the 529 plan a major detriment.
Based on reading your site it looks like your were making six figures every year, at which point you probably maxed out 401 K plans, and then had an amount equivalent to 2 — 3 times the 401K contribution left over to fund
investments in a taxable brokerage account.
I know myself and my situation well enough to understand that if I had invested the same amount of money
in a taxable brokerage account with more liquidity, I would have spent plenty of it on creature comforts that I don't need, and I would be worse off today for it.
And since I will need to do a large re-balancing in the next month (since I need to sell a large
amount in my taxable brokerage account to invest in the new small family business previously discussed) there is no better time to re-analyze my current portfolio of actively managed funds.
As a quick refresher, I was looking for some advice on whether I should 1) switch my 529 plan from Utah to NY based on about 8 bps differential in the total fee structure on my investment selections and 2) whether I should ultimately hold less in my 529 plan in favor of greater flexibility in holding some funds to be used for
college in my taxable brokerage account.
First thing we will do is begin executing on our tax optimization strategy which includes the Roth conversion ladder, but also includes other steps on reducing the imbedded capital gains
liability in our taxable brokerage account.
Once I have successfully rolled over all my Traditional IRA assets in Step 2 (which will take more than a decade), I will have also reset my tax
basis in my taxable brokerage account and eventually used up those assets to cover my living expenses.
The only other funds less than 5 % are PENNX which I am transitioning out of, PRMSX which I target around 5 % or less as my foray into emerging markets, and VGTSX which is low now as a result of the liquidation for the small business investment but I would expect to grow back above 5 % in time as I build back up my investments
held in my taxable brokerage account.
So long as our taxable income (which in retirement will be the amount we convert from our Traditional IRA to our Roth IRA and dividends from our taxable account if over and above our deductions and exemptions) is below that threshold, we can and will take advantage of the 0 % long term capital gains tax by selling our highly appreciated
assets in our taxable brokerage account.
Instead of keeping this
cash in my taxable brokerage account, I could contribute this money to my tax - deferred, self - employed 401 (k) and reduce my 2014 taxable income even further.
They have $ 500,000 in an eligible rollover IRA and $ 500,000
in a taxable brokerage account — which could be used to pay the taxes on the conversion, or to make a charitable donation.
Assuming I'm at the 15 % marginal tax rate, that would be a tax and penalty of 25 % versus the alternative of 0 % tax if held
in the taxable brokerage account.
Say that is at the 15 % marginal tax rate, but no matter what it is unavoidable whereas if those extra funds were
in a taxable brokerage account we'd at least have some control on limiting capital gains tax by staying in the 15 % income tax bracket.
While we have focused on maxing out our more tax efficient IRA and 401k retirement accounts, all remaining funds available to save for retirement have been tucked away
in this taxable brokerage account.
In a taxable brokerage account, investment losses can be used to offset investment gains each year — but that's not the case for an IRA.
So I may take some capital I have
in a taxable brokerage account and put it on the mortgage.