Robert Brokamp

You want to know what your parents wanted to happen because you don't want to be fighting with your siblings about whether or not, you know, mom or dad should be kept alive by certain means or methods when they could have just laid it all out ahead of time.

So you start by getting your own affairs in order and then you talk to your relatives.

That can be a tricky conversation sometimes, right?

Some people are very private about their money.

They don't really want to think about the fact that they may become sick or may pass away or just have to give up control at some point.

Any tips on how to have that conversation with not only your parents, should be siblings, should be kids too?

It's time to get it done, fools!

We'll continue to highlight some year-end financial planning considerations, and in this episode, let's talk about tax loss harvesting.

It starts by selling any stock, bond, mutual fund, ETF, options contract, or crypto that is below the price you paid for it and held in a taxable brokerage account, not in a retirement account.

The loss will first offset any capital gains you recognize this year, and then up to $3,000 in ordinary income, or $1,500 if you're married and file separately.

and the excess losses can be carried forward to future years indefinitely.

Just make sure neither you nor your spouse bought shares of the investment 30 days before the sale or buy back shares within 30 days after the sale in any of your accounts.

With a market near ultimate highs, you may wonder how many losses investors have.

But if you look in your portfolio, you may find a few duds.

Despite the S&P 500 returning almost 18% this year as of the market's close on Wednesday, almost 200 of the stocks in the index are in the red for 2025.

And three of the 11 standard and poor sectors have lost money over the trailing 12 months, those sectors being consumer staples, materials, and real estate.

On the flip side, you may have some big winners that have become an uncomfortably big part of your portfolio, but you're reluctant to scale back on those investments because of the tax consequences.

Well, selling those investments while also recognizing some losses is one way to rebalance your portfolio while limiting the tax bite.

And that, my Foolish friends, is the show.

Thank you so much for listening, and thanks to Bart Shannon, the engineer for this episode.