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Dividend portfolio versus a broad index in a taxable account, did the tax drag change your mind?

I ran both in taxable for six years, roughly half and half, so I can at least tell you what the paperwork felt like. The dividend sleeve produced income every quarter whether I wanted it or not, and in a year when I also had a bonus that income landed on top of everything else. The index sleeve distributed too, but far less, and the rest of its return sat there as unrealised gain whose timing I controlled.

That control is the whole difference and it is bigger than any yield gap. I am not a tax professional and the specifics depend entirely on where you live and what bracket you are in, so run your real numbers past an accountant before you move 30 percent of anything.

141 · in/dividend-investing ·

Roof, wiring, plaster and windows, and budget for two of them this year, how do you sequence that

I plastered a room beautifully and had it chased to pieces fourteen months later when we finally did the wiring. Two coats of good work, a lot of my own weekends, and a plasterer's bill, all of it destroyed by a decision I made because the room looked bad and I wanted a win. If any wiring or plumbing is going to move within the next few years, do not put a finished surface over it.

97 · in/old-house-repair ·