The Investment Thread (6 Viewers)

So I’m still a little obsessed with TSLA, and have been indulging in some ‘woulda coulda shoulda ’ math... Right now it’s still struggling to get back up to $700/share, but a couple months ago it peaked at $900/share... For those of you who are familiar with how federal taxes work, i am curious to know- if i had invested some actual money, as opposed to just playing around money, specifically if I’d invested $10k back when i bought in in early 2016 at $42/share, i calculated that , at it’s peak this past January, it would have been worth $216,000.. if i had decided to sell off half of it back in January, so $108k- how much of that would i have to pay in taxes? Is that waht’s called Capital Gains, or something else? Thanks for indulging me.
 
So I’m still a little obsessed with TSLA, and have been indulging in some ‘woulda coulda shoulda ’ math... Right now it’s still struggling to get back up to $700/share, but a couple months ago it peaked at $900/share... For those of you who are familiar with how federal taxes work, i am curious to know- if i had invested some actual money, as opposed to just playing around money, specifically if I’d invested $10k back when i bought in in early 2016 at $42/share, i calculated that , at it’s peak this past January, it would have been worth $216,000.. if i had decided to sell off half of it back in January, so $108k- how much of that would i have to pay in taxes? Is that waht’s called Capital Gains, or something else? Thanks for indulging me.

Since you held it over a year, it's considered a long term capital gain. Subtract the cost basis for your profit, then you'd be on the hook for capital gains tax on that amount. The percentage taxed will depend on your income that year. But I'm guessing you'd land at 15% capital gains tax.

If you held for less than a year it would be taxed as ordinary income rates, which are usually higher than capital gains rates.

The limits are $40k higher if married filing jointly.

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Since you held it over a year, it's considered a long term capital gain. Subtract the cost basis for your profit, then you'd be on the hook for capital gains tax on that amount. The percentage taxed will depend on your income that year. But I'm guessing you'd land at 20% capital gains



Yes, i bought it 5 yrs ago, BUT it did not really take off until 2020, and didnt hit that peak til early 2021.. so for most of the five years i had it, it stayed around the price per share i bought it in 2016... does that make sense? Also, FWIW, my income went down dramatically in 2020 due to Covid, but I’m not sure if that would factor in too much... BTW this is all hypothetical so that i can learn from it if there is a ’next time.’
 
Yes, i bought it 5 yrs ago, BUT it did not really take off until 2020, and didnt hit that peak til early 2021.. so for most of the five years i had it, it stayed around the price per share i bought it in 2016... does that make sense? Also, FWIW, my income went down dramatically in 2020 due to Covid, but I’m not sure if that would factor in too much... BTW this is all hypothetical so that i can learn from it if there is a ’next time.’

Actually, if your income dipped below $40k individual or $80k married filing jointly and you sold then, your tax would have been zero. Lol.

See the chart I added to my previous post.
 
Actually, if your income dipped below $40k individual or $80k married filing jointly and you sold then, your tax would have been zero. Lol.

See the chart I added to my previous post.




Awesome.. Good to know.. So if i ever see another stock with Tesla-type potential, i will purchase a ton of it, hold it for five years, then simply introduce another global pandemic so that my income tanks- and then sell the stock....... Thanks!
 
Awesome.. Good to know.. So if i ever see another stock with Tesla-type potential, i will purchase a ton of it, hold it for five years, then simply introduce another global pandemic so that my income tanks- and then sell the stock....... Thanks!

Another thing people do is sell losing holdings and use that to offset gains in other holdings. This will lower your taxes a good amount as well.
 
Awesome.. Good to know.. So if i ever see another stock with Tesla-type potential, i will purchase a ton of it, hold it for five years, then simply introduce another global pandemic so that my income tanks- and then sell the stock....... Thanks!

The one other caveat is that if your income is high enough, you can get hit with Alternative Minimum Tax, which is like a whole separate set of tax rules: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc556

You pay the max of normal tax rules vs AMT rules (which don't count long term gains as a separate rate). Got hit by that one year unexpectedly and got a nasty tax bill. Just something to be aware of.
 
The one other caveat is that if your income is high enough, you can get hit with Alternative Minimum Tax, which is like a whole separate set of tax rules: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc556

You pay the max of normal tax rules vs AMT rules (which don't count long term gains as a separate rate). Got hit by that one year unexpectedly and got a nasty tax bill. Just something to be aware of.

Good catch. That can definitely be a problem for some folks, but you usually have to make a pretty high amount before having to worry about that. But yeah, for planning purposes, you'll want to know what's coming before that hits.
 
Might want to hold that TSLA, as one investor is calling for a $3000 share price.






Oh, I’m for sure riding it out for the next few decades.. i mean, i got in at $42, so my hope is that TSLA will be like when you hear people say “If you had bought IBM in 1979” or “If you had bought AAPL in 1984” or something along those lines.. the small amount i own will never make me a multi-millionaire, but maybe when I’m retired it’ll be enough to put a substantial down payment on a condo near a beach somewhere, that’s all I’m hoping for.. well, that and to identify the “next Tesla stock” lol.
 
Last week flew to Colorado with a layover in Dallas. All three airports were slammed. Both flights were slammed. Flew back and the Denver airports was nuts, in DFW the train was so slammed that there was no room to get on and I had to wait for the next one and even then it was like sardines and both flights were fully packed. All 4 of those flights I had voucher offers from AAL to switch flights due to overbooking. It was so bad that when I stepped off the plane in Denver I added a large position to AAL. Yesterday I flew from CLT back home to Jackson and again, the airports were slammed, flights were packed. I haven't been able to find a rental car in 4 different cities the last week and have resorted to renting vehicles from Enterprise truck rental and Uhaul.

The travel industry is starting a boom that is likely going to last several years.

Pay attention to inflation. The fed has continued to indicate it will allow inflation to run hot and that is a really good thing for high debt companies because that debt will be worth a lot less in a few years. The travel sector is about to get overrun to the point they will be charging exceedingly high prices due to demand and profits are about to boom.

You weren't just kidding about Denver. Flew in Saturday and it was stupid busy. Had to wait to get on the train to baggage claim because it was so crowded and then packed back up when we did get on. No shortage of people flying in and out of there.
 
You weren't just kidding about Denver. Flew in Saturday and it was stupid busy. Had to wait to get on the train to baggage claim because it was so crowded and then packed back up when we did get on. No shortage of people flying in and out of there.
And, of course, airline stocks are down...


2. American Airlines
If I thought American Airlines was overvalued a week ago, when it was hitting new 52-week highs, I can assure you I'm even more convinced that it's a stock to avoid a 7% increase over the past five trading days. Air carriers are moving higher as we make headway on the COVID-19 crisis, but the portrait isn't as rosy overseas, with global cases moving higher again. It's going to take years before airlines have a chance to return back to normal, and American Airlines is one of the industry's weaker players.

The shocking stat is that as a result of taking on new debt and issuing more stock we find American Airlines trading at an enterprise value above $50 billion. At the beginning of last year the shares were trading a bit higher than they are right now. The 52-week highs it's hitting now have the advantage of lapping the start of the pandemic shutdown with travel stocks starting to swoon since late February of last year. There were no COVID-19 fears, and we were in an expanding economy. American Airlines had an enterprise value of $41.6 billion. Under what scenario is American Airlines a better company now than it was in the months before the pandemic became a globe-rattling reality? I also can't be the only one watching aviation fuel prices heading higher again.
 
Pretty sideways/down day for a few of the meme stocks. GME had its lowest trading volume since early January.
 

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