After-Tax Engineering

Investing

Tax-Aware Investing

Most investors focus on picking the right funds. Tax-aware investors also focus on where to hold them, when to sell, and how much of their return they're actually keeping.

These articles cover the mechanics of reducing tax drag on an investment portfolio — without changing your underlying investment thesis.

Three mechanics that reduce tax drag without changing your investment thesis — where to hold assets, when to harvest losses, and why ETF structure matters.

Tax-Loss Harvesting: Deep Dive

Soon

When to harvest, when not to, wash sale rules, and how to quantify the time-value benefit.

ETF Tax Drag Calculator Guide

Soon

Fund selection and account placement can add or subtract 0.5–1.5% per year. The full analysis.

Dividend Tax Drag

Soon

The hidden cost of high-yield funds in taxable accounts.

The core insight

A broad index ETF in a taxable account is already highly tax-efficient — low turnover, no embedded capital gains, qualified dividends. The biggest lever most investors have is account placement, not fund selection. Bonds and REITs belong in tax-advantaged accounts. Growth equities belong in taxable.