Did anyone Tax Loss Harvest this past week?

[JB3141]

I have always tax-loss harvested in December, but should I have done it last week during the downturn? Did I miss out here?

[JB3141]

And is it a good idea to sell VTI at a loss for VOO?

[CordMcNally]

Depends on how much you have to harvest.

[Lithium]

I did, and I will admit to a self-own. I sold one ETF yesterday morning, and then when I put in the limit order for the TLH partner, I set the price too low because I didn’t want to pay the high bid-ask spread. Most of us know what happened the rest of the day. I won’t say how much $ that cost me by the time I replaced the order, but it was enough to make me want to punch the wall.

Hopefully others will learn from my own goal. I dislike trying to buy and sell ETF’s when the market is really volatile. In the future I will just eat the spread.

[JB3141]

How much do you usually tax loss harvest in a year? Everytime you have a loss?

[Bmac]

I have over the last 6 weeks. But not how you might think. Municipal bond funds at Vanguard. Except for some equity funds in kids’ UTMAs, no other losses to harvest.

[ShredtheGnar]

I racked up a few thousand in loss and the the replacements are already up over $1k. So far so good. Will do again if I can record at least $1k in losses for any one fund. Have multiple partners for each asset class. I use ETFs and buy the partner as soon as I can. Just use market sell and buy and don’t worry about spreads.

[bovie]

How much do you usually tax loss harvest in a year? Everytime you have a loss?

Not even close. That's way too often.

[JB3141]

How much is too often to tax loss harvest?

[bovie]

How much is too often to tax loss harvest?

Honestly it’s more the amount that you should be measuring by, not the frequency.

That said, I’d strive for less than once year, for sure. High five-figure, or better yet, six-figure losses. Depends on what stage you’re at, of course.

The constant market monitoring and harvesting of tiny little losses is ridiculous though, if you ask me, and not just because it’s a PITA.

Just look at a graph of the S&P and you’ll see what I mean—you can harvest a bunch of wimpy losses multiple times per year, or that big one that comes after the bottom drops out once every few years (or more).

Exact same—or better—result.

[sleepysurf]

Harvested ~70K LT losses in Intermediate Term Treasury (exchanged to Short Term Treasuries), and used to rebalance my equity sub-classes (selling some appreciated funds). Got nearly everything back in sync with my IPS. After 30+ days I'll revert back to Intermediate Term (possibly with another TLH opportunity if/when Fed raises rates). Will also accelerate partial Roth Conversions if further market correction. I'm lovin' the volatility!

[Hatton]

I TLH some bond funds also. If you hold a long time it is rare to get losses.

[Larry Ragman]

No. I try to wait for significant moves and prefer 5 figures to 4. Never quite got there because my portfolio has mostly been paring gains, not actually showing losses. Can’t really complain about that!

[billy]

my trigger is 3k in an asset class, although as I start to gain more carry over loses (I'm only at 15k right now) the limit to pull the trigger increases.

[ScubaV]

Bumping as the worl...market turns. I've got a whopping $2.8k I can TLH in VTSAX. Not sure if it's really worth it. Seems like the market will probably get worse before it gets better.