Although few are as dumb as me, I wanted to put a mistake I've made out there in hopes of sparing someone else the same error.
Most of my savings are in retirement accounts. The remainder of my non-cash assets are in a brokerage account. I started off in an age-based target retirement account early on, particularly before I learned about MMM. I eventually shifted new investment to total market/total int'l market/total bond market funds. Wanting to avoid a taxable event, I held onto the target fund that was already invested.
Big mistake.
My 2021 tax bill for that fund included reported capital gains representing 15% (!) of my total holdings.
There is a NYT article about the issue:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/business/taxes-vanguard-investment-funds.html.
The situation is apparently generating some litigation. So at least lawyers will make some money.
Even though I'm going to take another material tax hit selling off my target fund, I'm getting out pronto to mitigate the risk that I get another unexpected tax bill. Face palm? Face punch? I've done both.
