Just looking for some advice on something I've had limited success in figuring out on my own.
-I am a full-time college student who just started an intense, accelerated academic program that will have me graduated and working within a year.
-I can't work until then.
-Have $X0,000 that Amazing Parents started saving for me when I was small. This will be used to pay my tuition for this year without going into debt.
-This money spent most of its life (25-30ish years) slowly accruing in some super-safe (slow grow, minimal volatility) mutual funds. A year or so ago, I moved the money to Vanguard and turned it into VTSAX. This was before I decided on using it for college, and my plan was to have it aggressively invested for decades. I'm aware of the folly of NOT using it for that, and blowing it all on tuition this year instead, but the degree will pay for itself many times over very quickly once I have it and I consider the investment worth it.
Question I have is: What are the tax implications of selling that much VTSAX, and how can they be minimized? I've tried to wrap my head around tax lot IDs, and order of selling, and I've tried to find paperwork from the money's early days when it was first being purchased, but it was over 20 years ago and they can't be found. I don't know what order the funds were bought in, or almost any of the relevant information one would need to get an idea of what the taxes would be for selling them, or how they should be sold to minimize any potential taxes. (I barely understand the implications of turning them into VTSAX a year ago, but even my vague understanding was enough to assure myself that it probably wouldn't be anything terribly catastrophic. In this case I don't feel comfortable being that casual about it.)
I know the answer to this question could mostly be, "It depends on (information I don't have)." but even a ballpark idea would be helpful. Any information that could help broaden my understanding would be appreciated.
Thank you! :D
Update:
Looking at Vanguard, I discovered I only THOUGHT I had purchased VTSAX last year. Apparently it was March of THIS year, and I'm afraid I did indeed buy them, instead of exchange them, or at least that's how it's reported in the transaction history. And I'll need to sell them this year, so it seems I'll have to pay the STCG tax.
Which leads me to a next question: Lets say, for example, I'm in the 12% tax bracket for 2018. Will I lose 12% of the value of the entire account if I sell it all, or will I just lose 12% of the value of the short term gains? I assume its the gains alone that are being taxed, and not the entire value of the account, but I'm not sure.