OK, I'll try and sum this up as short as possible. I own 87 shares of common stock in Darden Restaurants, (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.), which is worth approximatey $24.50 a share. Now, I just deposited these shares today in a CitiBank brokerage account. Now, I know that I will have to pay a cap. gains tax on these once I've sold them. But, what I don't know, is what is my different investment options from there, and what would be my best bet, taking into account taxes, fee's, interest, etc. Thanks alot, guys.
All these answers are really dependant on how long you choose to hold these stocks. Cap gains will likely not affect you at roughly $2100, unless they skyrocket (which we hope they do!!!). If I am not too badly mistaken, Cap gains cutoff went up to $85,000 this year, and are projected to climb somewhat if the republicans have their say. I suggest if you are new to the market (which I assume you are) to hold these stocks for a while. Sales of short term holdings will result in greater penalties. Holding a stock for 365 days will significantly reduce the governments bite out of your ass (by almost 50%). Plus, long term investing will almost always (I stress almost) result in some gains, where short term investments leave you with a 50/50 chance... although in todays market that is definately not the case... trust me. I have traditionally been a short term investor and over the last 4 years it has cost me alot of money... I mean, enough to pay off my house and build my dream home theater . You will recieve dividends as well, through the time of your ownership of the stocks. I like to suggest reinvesting the dividends whenever possible. However, where I have been fairly prosperous in the market in years past, the terrible downturn of the market has left me feeling as if I know less than I thought I did... I don't have the time to sit down and look over the WSJ like I used to, and that is really where short term investors need to be looking. I might suggest you sit down and discuss it with a financial consultant. Citibank should offer consulting at a reasonable rate... if not free for an existing customer. Long term I see good things for the food industry. While the heavy increase in fuel prices will likely drive the price of food up, and the value of your stock down a bit, more Americans are eating out now than ever before... and I expect the trend to continue... as long as we keep up our fat, lazy ways, you should expect to see the stocks climb... particularly those involving such great resturaunts as you listed above... Good luck!!!
Ya, I figured I should wait till 1 year, I have to call and see just exactly hwo long I've had these, sicne it was simply taken out of my paycheck. But, I know for a fact that this stock is pretty much topped-out, it's as high as it's ever been, higher than the 52 week high now, and probably has nowhere to go other than down. And, my dividends are only $.04 per share, lol, so, I'm not worried about that one. But, what would be my best choice for a longterm investment, the financial consultant at my bank told me a mutual fund, for now, for the availability of the money, then look into an IRA later. Do I get any tax breaks on a mutual fund like I would an IRA?
I made alot of money with Janus mutual funds. I invested heavily in high risk tech sector funds. I got out of them about 6 years ago, when I moved here from So Cal.... I used that money to fund the move and the downpayment on the house. Unfortunately most Funds have been steadily decreasing. But bear in mind their trends fairly closely follow the S&P index... keeping an eye on S&P trends will let you know how they are going now... For long term, it might be worth looking into low risk, low gain consumer product funds. Funds are just stock portfolios, so no on the tax breaks. IRA are specifically targeted as retirement funds, hence the tax breaks associated with them.
