Regardless of the market conditions, there is no bad to upgrade or make improvements in your portfolios. If it is an improvement, never hesitate based on the old sales sayings of "You are selling out of an investment when it is worth less than you started with", "never sell an investment when the market is down", or our personal favorite, "you shouldn't sell this because it is a long term investment". Ask people who owned stock in Ford, General Motors, or any of the other huge blue chip companies that went bankrupt this year if they were better off holding onto that particular stock as the market went south.
Furthermore, there are moves in your regular taxable accounts that can help reduce or eliminate taxes. Mutual funds must distribute capital gains to anyone that owns the fund on a particular date. Therefore, you can find yourself paying stiff tax bills because of a mutual fund that actual LOST you money. Now is a time to look at your investments to see if it makes sense to harvest some losses for tax purposes.Remember though, taxes should not be a major factor in making a decision to sell a good investment.
To hear the Smart Money Radio Show segment focused on this topic, Please Click Here! (about 7 minutes long)
To hear the full Smart Money Radio Show where Bruce discusses this topic and more, Please Click Here! (about 25 minutes long)
