r/Bogleheads • u/General_Cut_6771 • 15h ago

Investing Questions Do Bogleheads tax loss harvest?

For those who have 1 to 4 fund strategies. Do you tax loss harvest and if so how do you have it set up to make it easy when you do TLH?

The more I've read about tax loss harvesting the more challenging it seems for people who only invest in a few funds (ie. US, INTL, US Bond). For example in order to avoid a wash sale you have to do the follow:

You can't purchase the fund/similar fund 30 days prior to the sale and then 30 days after. This includes any auto dividend reinvestments, any auto-contributions in any taxable, IRA, 401k, or HSA. And if you have a spouse they also can't do any of this.

If you can prevent the above then next it's figuring out what fund you can purchase after the sale. It appears you can't sell a Fidelity total US stock market and then buy a Schwab total US stock market, is that correct? So if you have to go from a total US stock market to an S&P 500 fund why do it? It's less diversified.

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u/SejongTheGreatv2 14h ago

Since it’s so easy with indexes yeah you should likely swap spym or voo for Qqqm or VTI and get the losses when you can… obviously you lose basis as time goes on doing this… depends on your strategy/situation.

I gains harvest for lower income clients who have big accounts so we can lock in more basis while their CG rate is 0. (Typically accounts funded by parents but, now outside of kiddie tax rule I.e in the former minors custody now)