Should I sell my stocks?

[freshstart]

My situation: I am budgeted to spend $1335 a month and I do quite well to stay within that. My take home pay (at a minimum) is $1,224 per pay check. It is very rare I do not work overtime and my checks average $1800 or $3900 take-home a month.

I have $18,500 of credit card debt at 12.5% (down from around $23,500 since the beginning of the year). I have an emergency fund of $900 right now and all my excess money goes to the credit cards.

My question: I have a number of stock shares that my parents bought for me when I was much younger. They have been sitting and growing (for example, one company I started with 10 shares and have over 70 with splits and dividend re-investment). Right now, they are valued around $10,000 if I were to sell them all. Would it be worth it?

I don't know much about capital gains tax, but I do know I would have to pay. The cost of the stocks when purchased was around $1300, so there would be ~$8,700 of 'profit'. Given the state of the market and the fact that I'm making some headway on my debt, does it make sense to sell them or should I just leave them sit and hope the market bounces back someday?

[forHISglory]

I would suggest that you make an appointment with a financial advisor (sometimes the first meeting is free), and go over your concerns. A lot depends on what the stocks are. For example, are they domestic or international? Volatile or more steady? Emerging markets or not? What is the track record? And yes, find out how this will affect your tax situation. You might not need more than one meeting to sort this out, but you do need some professional advice.

[freshstart]

Wow, I had no idea it was so complex. I will look into meeting with a financial advisor. Thank you!

[Greebo]

Normally? I'd say, absolutely.


Ask yourself this - would you borrow money on the credit cards to buy stocks?

BUT the market is *really* deflated right now IMO. That might influence your decision.

Still, if you figure your normal tax rate + 10% on the profit (ie: sold price less bought price) and set that aside, you can still knock out a GOOD chuck of debt.

[kmonokwe]

My first reaction is also: sell them. You have made a significant return on the money invested, and I'd be afraid to trust single stocks to recover in a fashion parallel to the general economy. Its true that the market sucks right now, but who knows if the companies your stocks are with will come back at all? I don't know - this is the kind of thing that makes me nervous about buying single stocks at any time, even when the market is up. I don't mean to be critical here - I'm not here to say single stocks are bad for everyone. I just don't think I'd feel comfortable, personally having them at any time.

So, that makes me say sell them, definitely. I think forHISglory has some great ideas about things you need to know in order to be completely informed about your decision. If it were me, though, they'd be gone before the end of the day. Like Greebo said, you can set aside some taxes and it won't hurt that much. That $10k will make a significant dent on your debt, and since you're already making such incredible progress on the debt, just imagine the things you'll be able to do once its gone.

Kudos to you! You're doing great