Consolidate bond funds?

[travel2020]

Hello MMMs!

I’ve been purchasing some small quantities of bond funds rather haphazardly. These are in a taxable account and are about 4-5% of portfolio.

From what I’ve read, it’s usually not a good idea to keep bonds in taxable so looking for advice on whether it would be better to:
1) consolidate investments to a single fund in this account (one of the existing ones below or something different e.g. VTEB)
2)Sell these and buy some equity index funds, then sell some equity index funds in the IRA, purchase a bond fund in the IRA with that money
3) keep these as is and just focus future investments in one e.g. BNDW

Here are the various bond funds  (% represents total across these 3 funds)
- BLV : 55%
- BNDW: 10%
- BSV: 35%

Looks like if I sold all, there will be either a small loss or a small gain if I only sold some, so no major tax implications either way, at least for now.


Thanks in advance!

[celerystalks]

If the IRA is a traditional IRA then yes. Sell the bonds and to buy equities in the taxable account. Then buy the bonds in the IRA.  If the IRA is a Roth then keep it full of stocks.

Also check into a muni bond fund, if keeping bonds in a taxable account. The muni bond fund income is generally federal tax exempt, and some brokerage firms have state specific muni bond funds that are state tax exempt for a tax payers state income taxes as well.

[travel2020]

@celerystalks -Thanks for the response, makes sense. Will also look into the muni bond fund idea for taxable.

[Radagast]

I just said this in another thread, but... in taxable space my preferred bonds are Inflation Savings Bonds and Vanguard High Yield Tax Exempt (VWALX/VWAHX). In a Roth IRA no bonds. Elsewhere, it depends.

[travel2020]

Thanks @Radagast, will look into VWALX/VWAHX & inflation savings bonds.