We moved it from EJ to Vanguard in October. It was a class C share, so we were just able to sell it today without a 1% load fee. We'd rather take advantage of the tax-advantage accounts instead of a non-tax advantage account so we want to apply it next year for our 2020 IRA contribution (2019 is set). We just want it sitting somewhere safe - the thought behind not putting it all in VSTAX is that it's so volatile and it's not a good idea if we plan to sell it next year to fund the 2020 IRA. Does that make sense?
I do not think this is a good plan. You are going to be selling these taxable funds in about a year to fund your IRA.
First, how will you feel if the market heavily drops and this $10K is worth much less in one year? Any money that you need in the short term should not be invested in the market.
Second, there will be tax implications when selling in taxable. If you happen to have a capital loss, and you plan to invest in the same funds in your IRA, you will have a wash sale if you sell/buy within a 30 day window.
Third, you should ideally avoid bonds in taxable accounts because it's not tax efficient. You could increase you current IRA allocation by the % of bonds you're planning to allocate to taxable (since there are no tax implications of reallocating your IRA assets) and then invest 100% of the $10K in VTSAX/VTI in your taxable account.
If you want to get this $10K in the market, which I think is a good idea, I would invest 100% of $10K in VTI in the taxable account and keep it there long-term. Don't buy and sell. Then increase your bond percentage in your current IRA by whatever OVERALL stocks/bonds percentage lets you sleep well at night. Think of your asset allocation in terms of your entire portfolio.
Then, save new money throughout 2019 in a high yield savings account to reach your 2020 contribution so you can fund it at the beginning of the year.
The funds that you are selling in EJ are already in a taxable account, correct?