What Issues Should I Consider With the Income From My Taxable Non-Qualified Accounts?

Taxable accounts offer flexibility that retirement accounts don't, but that flexibility comes with an ongoing tax bill that retirement accounts largely defer. Understanding how dividends, interest, and gains are each taxed helps make that bill more predictable.

Coordinating which types of investments sit in taxable versus tax-advantaged accounts, sometimes called asset location, is one of the more overlooked ways to manage the tax drag on a portfolio over time.