I have invested in various stocks with a little money over the last 15 years. A little here, a little there. I have always been reluctant to sell cause I know that the tax rate on capital gains is high and it’s just isn’t worth selling if you lose most of your profit to Uncle Sam.
I am a amateur trader, that means I know NOTHING about the proper methods of analyzing stocks. I am what the professional fear most, some moron with money. It is kinda like going to the casino and playing a table game with ‘experts’ who berate the amateur for his amateur moves at something like black jack. We’ve been hearing alot about my kind of traders lately in this strange economy bubble that is happening. Lots of ‘Johnny-Know-Nothing’ affecting the big wigs in the financial world… only I’m prolly worse.
Anyway I was interested in selling the stocks I have had that have done really well. I had Vivint Solar that I bought for around $5ea and had jumped over the last year since another company bought them out. I also bought some Smith and Wesson (Outdoor Brands) a couple of years ago and the whole ‘Woke’ movement made the company decided to split their weapons business off from their outdoor equipment. I got extra shares from that and the stock itself has done pretty well. I wanted to sell the Outdoor Brands part of that purchase.
Last week I wanted to see what my actual tax burden would be (since I have never actually knew). The only thing I knew for sure was that you pay more in taxes if you short sell (sell the stock less than a year after buying). My assumption was that you had to pay somewhere in the realm of 40% taxes on profits. Man was I wrong.
For my tax bracket selling stocks less than a year from the date I purchased them would cost 12% of the profit. Selling stocks I held for more than one year costs 0%!
Needless to say I sold those stocks and now have $1,500 sitting in my account. Both have been held for more than a year.
Now I know, I want to start dabbling more in the market with this money. You may or may not know I am trying to get to 1 million dollars gross this year so I need to get moving! Keep an eye out for more updates as I attempt to multiple this money.
STARTING MONEY TO SPEND: $1,700