[Nancy]

Sorry if this is a super basic question, but google didn’t help me at all.

When you go to sell some of your portfolio for cash, I understand that you sell your best performing asset.

But how do you determine your best performing asset?

I’m in Schwab so if you can be specific to that platform for this dummy, it would be great.

Thanks.

[Suzanne]

Good question. The answer is the opposite of what I expected.
I understand we’re talking about selling *some* of our portfolio.

But why sell the best performing rather than the worst performing?

[Frank]

It is the best performing one since the last rebalancing.
Or just compare your current percentage allocations to your target allocations and sell the one that is the highest above the target.

[Eric]

Frank’s advice is always solid but I’m not smart at all with my accounts and so I haven’t rebalanced or done anything.

I also have Schwab and kind of just leave it and don’t look now.

[Dan]

When you look at your accounts on Schwab, you can open the tax lots and see the gain on each one. However, you might not want to do this manually.

Read on the Schwab site about the tax optimized selling feature.

[Jo]

Look at the cost basis tab. Also realize selling the most appreciated stock will also cause you the most amount of capital gains tax.

[Author]

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