Distributions are no reason to panic, ... What you're doing if you sell is realizing all of your gains. You're selling your fund and you're creating a taxable event.
Taxes are the single largest cost for shareholders.
Say we have to sell shares of Cisco to match its standing in a particular index. We sell the shares we have with the highest cost basis.
I wouldn't go out and automatically seek out dividend-paying stocks. They are now taxed at the same rate, but capital gains retain their preference because you can defer capital gains.
There's this feeling that capital gains taxes are going to be higher this year, which I certainly agree with, but I don't think we're going to be anywhere close to what we were seeing in the late 1990s and in calendar year 2000.
The average mutual fund has lost about 2.5 percent a year to taxes on dividends and capital gains. Most funds are managed without regard to taxes, but taxes are something that can be controlled.
This is a natural evolution of what we have long talked about at Vanguard -- that costs, broadly defined, are important in assessing funds' returns.
You have to take each situation individually, ... Don't make a knee-jerk reaction.
I worry that people are just buying performance.
