Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by 69x22

So Greg, all my money is tied up in 401 retirement accounts, but I have after tax money built up as well. My question is if I take some of this after tax money and open a Quiken account how will I know how much taxes I owe each year? Will Quiken send me a form or will I be stuck with figuring it out on my own? I appreciate all of the info.

I didn't know that Quiken was in the brokerage business -- So I'm going to assume this is a typo and you meant if you opened a discount brokerage account -- and used Quiken to do your tax accounting??

All brokerages will send you tax reporting information - Schwab breaks it down and sends me every trade - long term vs short term gains - they show wash sales info - dividends qualified or non qualified etc. I hand that paperwork to my accountant and he handles it for me. I get this type of breakdown from every brokerage I'm in so they all do it.

For those of you in IRA's and that type of tax deferred accounts - you don't have anything to report (yet)... because all your gains etc are "deferred" until you withdraw. And if you have a ROTH IRA - there is no tax ever since these are funded with after tax dollars (these are the best plans ever IMHO).