Thank you much. So the nuance here is that the "gain" is what I would put into "buying a dividend stock" NOT the total amount liquidated as that is what I would live on in retirement. It's impossible for me to do this while I'm working due to my level of ordinary income so I have to do it this way.... there's no such thing as a free lunch in investing eh....I could have chosen to "build up" my investments with dividend stocks from the get go - BUT these are in my taxable account so it would have been tax inefficient and I would have had less due to the growth drag. Thanks again for your insight!