$48 billion isn’t a lot of money—it’s a TON of money.
So what else could investors have bought instead? Here are a few ideas:
- WhatsApp—three times over.
- 82 billion rolls of toilet paper.
- 1.4 million BMWs.
- Twelve trips to Mars.
- 69 million Corgi puppies.
- Measles and rubella vaccines for every child in the world. (You’d have $45 billion leftover.)
- Time Warner Cable. The whole thing.
- 19 billion cans of SPAM.
- 91 million shares of Apple stock (10% of total shares outstanding).
- The White House—147 times over.
The point is: capital gains taxes matter. It pays to pay attention to taxes that come from your investments, because every dollar paid in taxes is a dollar less in your pocket.
This year, consider selecting funds that are managed for tax efficiency. Not all investments pay capital gains distributions and some funds—like ETFs—have a reputation for being tax-efficient.
Who knows—with a little tweaking of your portfolio, maybe this year you can buy what’s on your list.
* Sources: BlackRock and Morningstar, as of 12/31/13.
Jessie Szymanski writes about personal finance for The Blog. You can find more of her posts here.