Hello,
I recently started contributing to a taxable account in addition to my maxed out 401k. I first started with VTSAX only in the taxable account whereas my 401k is a VTSAX/VBTLX mix. I did this because of what I read about avoiding bonds in a taxable account. Over the 6 months that I've been doing this I've grown more uncomfortable with that AA and I'd like to add a bond component in to make it more closely mirror the 401k. Along these lines I started looking at various Vanguard tax-exempt funds. VTEB and VTEAX seemed appealing, but I'm confused. When I look at Vanguard's site, it makes the ETF seem like a no-brainer because of 3 things
1) Lower fee (0.08% vs 0.09%)
2) Doesn't seem to be a purchase cost on the ETF but the admiral shares cost you 0.25% up front
3) The ETF seems to be about 0.05% better on taxation of distributions and sales of shares
So great, go with the ETF, right? But then I read stuff like this that says (for reasons I can't really grasp yet) that you should never buy an ETF with bonds in it:
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/why-you-should-avoid-bond-etfs/So what's the deal?
Thanks!
Jeff
