I retired a little over 4 years ago. Told the wife a couple years before that I wasn't retiring with a mortgage. So we paid it off, purchased two new vehicles with cash, kept the old vehicles which still run, and we're doing ok just on Social Security with the exception that the house needed a couple of expensive things replaced (roof, heat pump). We were easily able to pay for the repairs out of our savings. Of course, good old Uncle Sam got his cut of that. By far most of the money that has evaporated from savings since retirement has been due to losses and inflation. The last good year was 2019. Covid hit in 2020 and then, far worse than the Chinese bio-weapon, the Biden administration. We're still in better shape than a lot of people.
I poked around a little. Looks like you're right, 50,000 FRNs is the limit. Not really worth the trouble.
@VisuTrac "Now had this been in a regular brokerage account and this all happened in a single year, as long as you wait at least 30 days between the sale and the purchase, you can deduct the loss against your profit." Yeah, I've done this before too. I think there is a maximum you can deduct per year, right? I wouldn't know what it is now, but I think it was $3000 per year over a 5-year period when I did it, or something like that...it was long ago so I forget details but, yes, you definitely can do it and every little bit helps. I should look this up as I still am holding one stock that doesn't seem to want to get off the deck even though all the signs are positive - Panasonic. Held it for years now... MM, please be sure to let us know. I've considered doing this myself. Gold is hanging around $1850 now...
the cap of 3k is where your capital losses exceeds your capital gains, you are limited to 3k per year (until all the losses are consumed by profits) against your ordinary income. So let's say in a single tax year you earned 50k in wages, and made 5k in capital gains on all your stocks except one where you lost 5k when you sold it. At that point you have no capital gains nor loss as they cancel each other out. lets say next year, you still make 50k but made 10k in gains and but one of your other stocks went into the shitter so you sold it before dec 31st and lost 13k on it. Good news. You can deduct 3k from your 50k and only owe wage taxes on 47k. and the following year, your boss didn't give you a raise yet again, still at 50k. A few of your stocks went way up and you made 50k on them. But that stock your brother-in-law had you buy in a couple of years ago went bankrupt. You are out 70k. It would be great if you could say you only made 30k that year but no, you can't deduct all your losses above the profits against your wages .. you can only deduct the maximum of 3k. So you owe wage taxes on 47k but you have a carry-forward loss of 17k that can be used in future years against capital gains or your wages or both. But you can't reduce your wage income by more than 3k per year. Again, this is how i understand it to work. Consult an accountant or tax professional for your own circumstances. Here is some additional information about how it may work. How to Deduct Stock Losses From Your Tax Bill.
