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Maxatartoday at 8:41 PM1 replyview on HN

>You still are paying the capital gains taxes with the ETF, they are just rolled into the management fees.

There is just so much wrong with this statement and several others that I don't even know where to begin.

At the end of the day... if you are having fun doing what you're doing, then by all means go for it, my main concern is that people might read what you're saying and actually get misled by it or believe that you're saying something that is true. Your statement seems sophisticated enough that someone could read it, think you have actual knowledge of this topic, and come away with the idea that this is actually a remotely good idea.

For those people... please understand that tombert has no idea what he's talking about, his reasons for what he's doing are not actually because he's trying to save any fees, or because there is anything optimal or rational behind it or he's in anyway outsmarting actual institutional ETFs.

His genuine reason for this appears to be entirely whimsical and for his own amusement and enjoyment, and honestly that is fine, people can do what they want with their own money and there is nothing inherently immoral about this. My main issue is him not being upfront about his actual incentive and instead misleading people into thinking that there is some kind of economic advantage behind this.


Replies

tomberttoday at 8:43 PM

Yeah I was wrong, I actually updated my comment right before you posted your response so I understand why you didn't see it.

I was definitely wrong; I misunderstood something about ETFs. ETFs probably are more tax efficient after all, or maybe some kind of direct indexing thing if I want to avoid Tesla and/or SpaceX.

I'll acknowledge that there's some validity in "doing things for my amusement". I do think that if I avoid selling things and instead only buy to rebalance, that could avoid a lot of tax bullshit, but that's definitely not what I was suggesting before so I'll acknowledge that I was absolutely in the wrong.

ETA:

I actually think I agree with you for the most part. I don't think it's the worst financial advice on HN but it's definitely not good financial advice either.

It's too late to edit the root comment directly but I did email HN support to ask if they could amend it for me.