There are only a few days left in the year, which means the clock is winding down for some key 2019 investment planning. Here are our four tips and reminders for investors as we enter the New YearContribute to Retirement Plans
Contribute to Retirement Plans:
Whether you have an employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k) or 403(b), or are a small business owner with your own retirement plan, you may still have one paycheck left to make an additional contribution to your plan if you haven’t maxed it out already. If you don’t have a job where a retirement plan is offered, then consider making a contribution to an IRA or a Roth IRA (your income and tax filing status may affect how much, or if, you can contribute). Truth be told, you actually have until April 15, 2020 to make IRA contributions, but why not end the year on a savings note if you can!
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Get our free 2019 Investors’ Year in Review
As 2019 draws to a close, many investors make it a habit to reflect on the past 12 months, and how the events and trends will shape the upcoming year.
At Zacks Investment Management, we pay close attention to economic, financial, and geopolitical events as they relate to investments. The year’s trends and themes can often be a predictor of future markets—and, in our opinion, reviewing the past can be helpful as you position yourself and your portfolio for the future. That’s why we’d like to offer you our free year-end guide.
If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get your free copy today. We believe it offers detailed analysis of the year’s most consequential events, as well as our opinion on what they mean for investors going forward into 2020.
The Comprehensive 2019 Year in Review For Investors1
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Work with Your Advisor and Tax Advisor on Potential Tax Loss Harvesting
At Zacks Investment Management, we are not tax advisors and our core focus is on managing wealth. But one of our advisors can work with you and your tax advisor to determine if you have gains in your taxable portfolios that you may be able to strategically offset with losses. You are also allowed to offset up to $3,000 in income from capital losses in your portfolio, if you don’t have any gains to offset from 2019. You’ll need to place trades before market close on December 31, and don’t forget about the wash-sale rule, which states that you cannot repurchase the securities you sold until after a 30-day waiting period.2
Don’t Forget Your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)!
If you’re over the age of 70.5 and have qualified retirement accounts, then you almost certainly have to take an RMD each year. If you don’t make any withdrawals from your IRA in a year that you’re 70 ½ or older – or if you withdraw less than the required amount – you may have to pay a 50% excise tax on the amount not distributed as required. In addition to paying a hefty tax, you likely have to do more paperwork the next year at tax time by filing Form 5329, “Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts.”3 So don’t forget to take it!
Remember Lessons from 2019 and Stay Focused on the Long-Term
We would qualify 2019 as a year where many investors entered the year skeptically, especially considering the dramatic sell-off experienced at the end of 2018. The trade war was growing, the stock market was wildly volatile, and recession chatter was growing by the day. At the outset of the year, there seemed to be more reasons to be negative than positive.
But as the year draws to a close, it will go down as one of the best performance years for U.S. equities for the entire decade. It serves as a reminder that stocks are often able to climb the “wall of worry,” and that investing based on emotions or news headlines can often result in being on the sidelines when the market surprises us the most. As we enter 2020, no one can say for sure what the new year will bring in terms of stock market returns or economic growth. But what we do know is that over time, the stock market and the economy have overcome adversity – with speed bumps along the way, certainly – to reach new all-time highs.
Looking back on 2019, the year’s trends and themes can often be a predictor of future markets—and, in our opinion, reviewing the past can be helpful as you position yourself and your portfolio for the future.
To help you do this, we are offering readers our Comprehensive 2019 Year in Review.4 We believe this guide offers detailed analysis of the year’s most consequential events, as well as our opinion on what they mean for investors going forward into 2020.
If you have $500,000 or more to invest, click on the link below to get our free year-end review today!
Disclosure