Tranquility Base
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2017
- Messages
- 104
I own 30 or so stocks in various accounts which I would like to eventually sell. Most (25) of the stocks are held in a taxable account and are listed below. I am not sure how well the table will copy and paste into this post, but I will do my best. The list was prepared one month ago but the stocks are the same and the unrealized gains are probably a built larger now.
Symbol Description Market Value Gain/Loss $
AAPL APPLE INC $52,214.85 $44,012.91
ACN ACCENTURE PLC FCLASS A $23,882.95 $19,905.35
BLK BLACKROCK INC $20,044.00 $15,489.98
C CITIGROUP INC $2,803.84 $545.50
COF CAPITAL ONE FC $16,222.64 $9,201.67
COP CONOCOPHILLIPS $9,443.50 $5,150.92
CVS CVS HEALTH CORP $7,729.00 $150.40
CVX CHEVRON CORP $6,387.36 $2,748.63
DE DEERE & CO $30,761.81 $24,613.76
DUK DUKE ENERGY CORP $6,300.20 $867.80
J JACOBS SOLUTIONS INC $13,678.88 $8,685.90
JNJ JOHNSON & JOHNSON $19,099.85 $10,195.59
JPM JPMORGAN CHASE & CO $43,068.55 $29,337.35
KO THE COCA-COLA CO $9,969.90 $2,919.12
MCD MCDONALDS CORP $28,654.56 $18,382.01
MSFT MICROSOFT CORP $65,195.82 $56,338.24
ORCL ORACLE CORP $19,345.28 $14,553.85
PG PROCTER & GAMBLE $21,366.96 $13,043.72
RTX RTX CORP $10,572.24 $5,239.35
STT STATE STREET CORP $6,992.00 $2,978.73
TGT TARGET CORP $22,410.00 $15,286.86
TRMB TRIMBLE INC $8,312.88 $3,317.68
UNP UNION PACIFIC CORP $33,151.60 $19,924.41
USB U S BANCORP $9,281.82 $2,438.47
V VISA INC CLASS A $30,532.77 $22,342.47
Total -- $517,423.26 $347,670.67
I don’t have any large objections to holding any of these stocks other than for the past year I have been working on trying to simplify my holdings. Ironically, I have more positions now than I did one year ago, but that is because I have sold off several large positions in bond funds and replaced them with individual bonds, CDs, and a few, much smaller, positions in other bond funds (thanks to the advice I received from pb4uski and many others on this forum). I have been gradually changing my equity holdings to equity ETFs such as VTI and VOO. I started by selling the easy ones, the low hanging fruit. These were positions which were relatively small, and some had losses which I could use to offset the gains on other positions which I was selling, even though they had gains, because they were relatively small and not worth the bother of continually having to monitor them.
Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked now. I am left with these 30 positions, 25 of which are in a taxable account, and most of which are carrying a significant (significant for me at least) unrealized gain.
I am debating and trying to figure out what to do with them. I can sell them someday to offset losses, but I don’t have any significant unrealized losses at this time. I could sell some of them when needed to meet income needs but that wouldn’t require a significant amount of sales because our income needs are mostly met right now by social security, a pension, and cash reserves.
I don’t want to sell these stocks just to give in to the internal pressure I feel to simplify things and thereby create significant capital gains (all of which would be long term at least) and tax liabilities. I just dream of the day when I don’t have so many positions to monitor every 3-4 months to see how they are doing. I admit that it’s a nice “problem” to have. Even though people in this forum sometimes joke that when asked what they do for work and they don’t want to say that they are retired, they say they are an investment manager, I am not interested in having to spend as much time as I do trying to keep track of these individual stocks. I am no expert. I am self-taught. I think I can do it. I just don’t want to do it.
I always remember Warren Buffett’s comments to the effect that you should take the long view, and not buy something you aren’t intending to hold for ten years, etc. As others often point out, however, we are not Warren Buffett. I am also concerned about not knowing when it is best to sell a stock simply because it is overvalued, and the time is ripe to sell it. Various rating services can shed some light on whether a stock is overvalued and it is very easy to see Morningstar’s opinion on whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued in their reports. But you have to take analysts’ reports with a grain of salt. Just because I have done well (at least I think I have) on these stocks to date and they have some significant unrealized capital gains, doesn’t necessarily mean they should be held forever. I am a big believer in everything having its season.
Clint Eastwood used to say that a man has got to know his limitations. I think I know many of my limitations. One limitation is that I am not as capable of determining or knowing when it is time to sell a stock as I am in knowing when it is time to replace an appliance, a computer, or a motor vehicle.
What would you do? I am guessing many people would just try to be patient and wait to sell until the opportunity arises and I have losses to offset the gains. But I want to avoid blindly continuing to hold an investment simply because it has a built-up unrealized gain and has done well in the past.
Symbol Description Market Value Gain/Loss $
AAPL APPLE INC $52,214.85 $44,012.91
ACN ACCENTURE PLC FCLASS A $23,882.95 $19,905.35
BLK BLACKROCK INC $20,044.00 $15,489.98
C CITIGROUP INC $2,803.84 $545.50
COF CAPITAL ONE FC $16,222.64 $9,201.67
COP CONOCOPHILLIPS $9,443.50 $5,150.92
CVS CVS HEALTH CORP $7,729.00 $150.40
CVX CHEVRON CORP $6,387.36 $2,748.63
DE DEERE & CO $30,761.81 $24,613.76
DUK DUKE ENERGY CORP $6,300.20 $867.80
J JACOBS SOLUTIONS INC $13,678.88 $8,685.90
JNJ JOHNSON & JOHNSON $19,099.85 $10,195.59
JPM JPMORGAN CHASE & CO $43,068.55 $29,337.35
KO THE COCA-COLA CO $9,969.90 $2,919.12
MCD MCDONALDS CORP $28,654.56 $18,382.01
MSFT MICROSOFT CORP $65,195.82 $56,338.24
ORCL ORACLE CORP $19,345.28 $14,553.85
PG PROCTER & GAMBLE $21,366.96 $13,043.72
RTX RTX CORP $10,572.24 $5,239.35
STT STATE STREET CORP $6,992.00 $2,978.73
TGT TARGET CORP $22,410.00 $15,286.86
TRMB TRIMBLE INC $8,312.88 $3,317.68
UNP UNION PACIFIC CORP $33,151.60 $19,924.41
USB U S BANCORP $9,281.82 $2,438.47
V VISA INC CLASS A $30,532.77 $22,342.47
Total -- $517,423.26 $347,670.67
I don’t have any large objections to holding any of these stocks other than for the past year I have been working on trying to simplify my holdings. Ironically, I have more positions now than I did one year ago, but that is because I have sold off several large positions in bond funds and replaced them with individual bonds, CDs, and a few, much smaller, positions in other bond funds (thanks to the advice I received from pb4uski and many others on this forum). I have been gradually changing my equity holdings to equity ETFs such as VTI and VOO. I started by selling the easy ones, the low hanging fruit. These were positions which were relatively small, and some had losses which I could use to offset the gains on other positions which I was selling, even though they had gains, because they were relatively small and not worth the bother of continually having to monitor them.
Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked now. I am left with these 30 positions, 25 of which are in a taxable account, and most of which are carrying a significant (significant for me at least) unrealized gain.
I am debating and trying to figure out what to do with them. I can sell them someday to offset losses, but I don’t have any significant unrealized losses at this time. I could sell some of them when needed to meet income needs but that wouldn’t require a significant amount of sales because our income needs are mostly met right now by social security, a pension, and cash reserves.
I don’t want to sell these stocks just to give in to the internal pressure I feel to simplify things and thereby create significant capital gains (all of which would be long term at least) and tax liabilities. I just dream of the day when I don’t have so many positions to monitor every 3-4 months to see how they are doing. I admit that it’s a nice “problem” to have. Even though people in this forum sometimes joke that when asked what they do for work and they don’t want to say that they are retired, they say they are an investment manager, I am not interested in having to spend as much time as I do trying to keep track of these individual stocks. I am no expert. I am self-taught. I think I can do it. I just don’t want to do it.
I always remember Warren Buffett’s comments to the effect that you should take the long view, and not buy something you aren’t intending to hold for ten years, etc. As others often point out, however, we are not Warren Buffett. I am also concerned about not knowing when it is best to sell a stock simply because it is overvalued, and the time is ripe to sell it. Various rating services can shed some light on whether a stock is overvalued and it is very easy to see Morningstar’s opinion on whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued in their reports. But you have to take analysts’ reports with a grain of salt. Just because I have done well (at least I think I have) on these stocks to date and they have some significant unrealized capital gains, doesn’t necessarily mean they should be held forever. I am a big believer in everything having its season.
Clint Eastwood used to say that a man has got to know his limitations. I think I know many of my limitations. One limitation is that I am not as capable of determining or knowing when it is time to sell a stock as I am in knowing when it is time to replace an appliance, a computer, or a motor vehicle.
What would you do? I am guessing many people would just try to be patient and wait to sell until the opportunity arises and I have losses to offset the gains. But I want to avoid blindly continuing to hold an investment simply because it has a built-up unrealized gain and has done well in the past.