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cashing in stocks for house downpayment
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i'm not sure where people keep getting this idea, but i see it come up a lot. anyway, you pay capital gains taxes when you sell an investment that has appreciated. it makes no difference when/if you reinvest the money or what you invest it in. if you are afraid of the tax burden you can minimize it by: 1) selling a stock that you have held longer than a year to get the lower long-term rate. 2) sell a stock that hasn't appreciated that much and therefore doesn't have a lot of gains to tax. 3) sell a stock that's below purchase price (i.e. at a loss) to offset any short term gains.
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