Selling some funds

Sold some of my Vanguard Total Stock today.....that plus the cash we already have plus the house sale should give us enough money to get through the the first year or two in the UK (as long as we don't buy something more than we need...saw a nice bungalow for 150K Pounds that needed work that would have been perfect). The guy told me the following.

-- I need to switch the two regular funds over to ETF's. He said a like to like switch (like Total to the Total ETF I had to call to do), but if I wanted to switch my Dividend Growth over to something (no ETF equiv) I can do that online but will have to sell the fund and then buy something else. If I understood that correctly, selling the Dividend fund will cause all CGains (close to $8K) to come up on this tax year....correct?

--Since I have to sell that Dividend Growth fund, any recommendations? The Total stock (about $64K left after what I sold today) and whatever I stick the Dividend Growth fund (about $75K right now) into is what we will be spending the next 7-8 years or so. Just wondering if moving it to the Dividend Appreciation would be a stupid move tax wise. I figured we were willing to risk the Total stock money being in the high fluctuation ETF, but wanted the other money in something a little more stable.

No advice from me on what to buy if you sell that fund, but have you considered how much tax you will expect to pay on $8k of cap gains? 

From a UK tax standpoint that amount of CG's will be tax free.  From a US tax perspective then if you end up in the 15% bracket it will also be tax free.  If that is likely to be the case, then it's a non-issue

If you sell before April 5th and move to the UK after April 5th then no UK tax consideration at all.

-- I need to switch the two regular funds over to ETF's. He said a like to like switch (like Total to the Total ETF I had to call to do), but if I wanted to switch my Dividend Growth over to something (no ETF equiv) I can do that online but will have to sell the fund and then buy something else. If I understood that correctly, selling the Dividend fund will cause all CGains (close to $8K) to come up on this tax year....correct?

If there is not an ETF version of your shares you have to sell the fund and thus realize capital gains. If you are taxed on an arising basis in the UK those will be UK taxable and if you are a US citizen also US taxable......if the funds are not UK reporting funds you loose your UK CGT allowance and have to pay tax on them at your income tax rate, so it's best to do this before you become subject to UK tax.

--Since I have to sell that Dividend Growth fund, any recommendations? The Total stock (about $64K left after what I sold today) and whatever I stick the Dividend Growth fund (about $75K right now) into is what we will be spending the next 7-8 years or so. Just wondering if moving it to the Dividend Appreciation would be a stupid move tax wise. I figured we were willing to risk the Total stock money being in the high fluctuation ETF, but wanted the other money in something a little more stable.

You can adjust you AA by moving stuff around in your retirement funds, there are no tax issues there.

I'd be tempted to keep it really simple and just use VTI, there won't be any capital gains distributions for you to worry about how to tax in the UK. On the negative side you are open to currency fluctuation. If cash flow isn't an issue you can just rebalance across the portfolio by selling and buying on the retirement side.

Durhamlad- I need to sit down with some paper to figure that one out. Could be a situation where it goes back to whether I file joint or separately. My taxable income from 2013 was only $7600 so if I am close to that this year (under $10K)  I think there is room in there for the CG on moving the Dividend fund ($8K) and CG on what I just sold (should be around $7K).....and likely around another $10K CG if I want to use it. Part of me just wants to sell a little bit more of the Total Stock and just hold enough cash to get me through the next 3 years without even thinking about selling anything else. Advantage of that is in 2 years I can start pulling money out of my TSP if I want (which is 60% in the super safe G fund).

nun- comes back to how much risk I want to take with money that I may need within 3 years or so. If I pull out a little more from the Total stock (sure thinking about it).....even with buying a house in the UK we would have enough cash to ride out a couple years if the market goes kaput. If the G fund would just go back up to 3% (I wish!!....maybe in a year or so. 2% now, but likely going down since the 10 year T has sunk like a rock) I wouldn't be surprised if I just dumped all my TSP into it.

Also-- I am assuming that I would be taxed on the arising basis. There is a big part of me that just wants to sell off enough so that I have cash for maybe 5 years.....maybe a little wasteful (if the markets go up) and I am only getting savings account %.....but obviously secure for anything we would need in the next 5 years. Avoids worrying about UK tax for that period of time.....or mostly........

Although there is always something in the back of my head......what if they don't let me into the UK? Paranoia strikes......I have some money. I have no legal issues. Married to a Brit. I've already lived in the UK for 14 years (not that they are likely to care). I mean......I play GOLF for God's sake!!!! Although I don't like Ale.....that could be a negative check

As an example here's what I did when I retired at 53.

I moved enough  of my bond allocation to cover 7 years of spending into a stable value fund in my 457 plan. This is like your G fund so it guaranteed I'd have money to get me to 59.5 and penalty free IRA access. I pay tax on 457 withdrawals, but no penalty.

My asset allocation is 60/38/2 (the 2 being cash) and I rebalance when stocks go outside the 65% to 55% range.

For the past year I've lived off rent and my bank account. When I need cash I'll either take profits from my taxable mutual funds of if the markets are down I will come from my stable value fund.

As an example here's what I did when I retired at 53.

I moved enough  of my bond allocation to cover 7 years of spending into a stable value fund in my 457 plan. This is like your G fund so it guaranteed I'd have money to get me to 59.5 and penalty free IRA access. I pay tax on 457 withdrawals, but no penalty.

My asset allocation is 60/38/2 (the 2 being cash) and I rebalance when stocks go outside the 65% to 55% range.

For the past year I've lived off rent and my bank account. When I need cash I'll either take profits from my taxable mutual funds of if the markets are down I will come from my stable value fund.

I was close to the same....retired at 53 from teaching (Govt).....but 3 weeks from being 54. Just coming up on 4 years in June of retirement. Not likely I have the money you do....but we live cheap....cheaper if I would stop buying the occasional toy (octave mandolin at Christmas). Over the next year or two I was hoping to move almost all of the TSP over to G fund.......Spend the next 7 years or so slowly feeding off of the Vanguard money. By then I would be on SS and my wife about to pull in spousal SS.....which at that time (plus pension) would pull in close to $3,000 a month.....which is right on what we are spending a year. If I were 59.5 already I could always feed off the TSP if the markets went down (still could I guess if I wanted to do a 72T). Still think I might sell a little more of the Total stock just to have enough sitting in cash until I have that option in 2 years. I'm likely just whinging....   But...just one simple safe-ish Vanguard ETF for the next 7 years still might be the answer.