8 Smart moves to make by year end
These strategies will cut your taxes and prep you for the new year. But you have to act by Dec. 31.
By George Mannes, Money Magazine senior writer
Investments
Take your losses
The Dow may be ending the year in record territory, but most of us still have a few duds sitting in our portfolios (after all, many late-'90s high fliers are still down 50 percent or more from their peaks).

If there's not a reasonable chance of recovery soon, sell those clunkers now and use the losses to offset capital gains you've reaped this year.

If, perish the thought, you have more losses than gains, you can take up to $3,000 of those leftover losses to offset your ordinary income. If your losses are greater than $3,000 (now this is getting depressing), you can carry the excess forward to reduce your taxable income in 2007 and later years.
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© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .
Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .