Which account should each fund go in?
The same seven funds cost you different amounts of tax depending on which account holds them. This calculator ranks them.
What it answers
You have some money in a Roth, some in a traditional IRA or 401(k), and some in an ordinary taxable brokerage account. The funds that throw off the most taxable income each year belong in the sheltered accounts; the ones that throw off the least belong in the taxable account, where the shelter would be wasted on them. The calculator works out that ranking for the seven funds in the portfolio with trend: RSST, VTI, VTV, VXUS, AVDV, IDMO and AVES. For each one it says where it goes and why in one line.
The short version is stable across every tax bracket I ran: every international fund goes into a sheltered account before any US fund, RSST and IDMO go first, and VTI goes last, so it is the fund that lives in the taxable account.
What it needs from you
Two things. Your federal tax bracket, or your own rates if you know them, and roughly what share of your investments sits in each type of account. It does not ask your income, your balance, or anything that identifies you, and nothing you type leaves your browser. The button underneath writes your setup into the address bar, if you want to send it to someone.
US federal rates, with the 3.8% surtax on investment income already included where it applies. State tax is left out and adds to every line.
The two kinds of shelter treat these funds the same way. Foreign tax is lost inside both.
RSST records income inside itself that it has not paid out yet. Counting it puts RSST first in the queue; counting only what has been paid out puts it near the bottom. It belongs in a sheltered account either way.
That leaves 34% of your money in a taxable brokerage account and 66% of it sheltered.
RSST goes first: it saves 3.618% a year per dollar sheltered, against 0.649% for VXUS, the weakest foreign case. VTI still comes last at 0.254%.
Put this here
- RSSTRoth or traditional IRA. Sheltered, because its futures income is taxed as ordinary income, and most of it has not been paid out yet.
- IDMORoth or traditional IRA. Sheltered, because it turns over its whole portfolio every year and pays out the gains, most of them taxed as income.
- AVESRoth or traditional IRA. Sheltered, because a high dividend, less than half of it at the low rate.
- AVDVRoth or traditional IRA. Sheltered, because a foreign dividend near 2.8%, a third of it taxed as income.
- VXUSRoth or traditional IRA. Sheltered, because a foreign dividend near 2.7%, and the credit you would keep in a taxable account is a fifth of the tax you would pay there.
- VTVTaxable brokerage account. Taxable, because a modest US dividend, all of it at the low rate, and no capital-gain payouts.
- VTITaxable brokerage account. Taxable, because the smallest dividend on the list, all of it at the low rate, so it costs the least to leave unsheltered.
If you have both, the international funds go in the Roth and RSST goes in the traditional account. The Roth is never taxed again, so spend it on the holdings you expect to grow most. The traditional account has to start paying out in your seventies, so give it the holding you would trim first.
The numbers behind it
| # | Fund | Share of portfolio | Tax you'd pay each year in a taxable account | Foreign tax credit you'd lose if sheltered | Saved per dollar sheltered | Goes in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RSSTReturn Stacked US Stocks and Managed Futures ETF, counting everything it has recorded | 30% | 3.618% | 0.000% | 3.618% | Roth or traditional IRA |
| 2 | IDMOInvesco S&P International Developed Momentum ETF | 5% | 1.605% | 0.123% | 1.482% | Roth or traditional IRA |
| 3 | AVESAvantis Emerging Markets Value ETF | 5% | 1.300% | 0.460% | 0.840% | Roth or traditional IRA |
| 4 | AVDVAvantis International Small Cap Value ETF | 10% | 0.824% | 0.169% | 0.655% | Roth or traditional IRA |
| 5 | VXUSVanguard Total International Stock ETF | 16% | 0.827% | 0.178% | 0.649% | Roth or traditional IRA |
| 6 | VTVVanguard Value ETF | 15% | 0.431% | 0.000% | 0.431% | Taxable brokerage account |
| 7 | VTIVanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 19% | 0.254% | 0.000% | 0.254% | Taxable brokerage account |
Computed at 23.8% on qualified dividends and 40.8% on ordinary income, on yields and withheld rates as of 2026-08-23. Sheltering the foreign funds gives up 0.074% a year of foreign tax credit, permanently, in a Roth and a traditional account alike. The saved-per-dollar column has already subtracted it.
Why foreign funds go in first
You have probably read the opposite: hold international funds in the taxable account so you can claim the foreign tax credit. Sheltering all four of them here does give up 0.074% a year of credit, permanently. It saves several times that, because foreign funds pay bigger dividends, and a bigger dividend in a taxable account is a bigger tax bill. At 23.8% on qualified dividends, the weakest foreign case is VXUS at 0.649% saved a year per dollar sheltered, against RSST at 3.618% for the strongest US case.
VTI comes last, at 0.254%. It is the cheapest, broadest, calmest fund on the list, which is exactly why it belongs in the account with no protection.
What it does not know
State tax, which it ignores entirely. The menu of funds your employer’s plan actually offers, which may not include most of these. Gains already built up in a taxable account, which can make moving a fund cost more than the shelter saves. And how RSST’s income will be taxed, which its own filings leave open; the calculator lets you choose either reading. Only RSST moves, from first in the queue to next to last. I shelter it anyway, because sheltering it needlessly costs far less than leaving it exposed if the fuller reading is the right one.
What it is worth
Against a sensible default, putting each fund in its best account saves about 2 to 7 hundredths of a percent a year. It is worth considerably more if you would otherwise have held the international funds in a taxable account, and it is worth nothing if all your money is in one type of account.
The queue at equal thirds
One investor, equal thirds in a Roth, a traditional account and a taxable brokerage account, at the top federal rates, counting everything RSST has recorded. Rendered here whether or not the tool above loaded.
| # | Fund | Share | Saved per dollar sheltered | Goes in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RSST | 30% | 3.618% | Roth or traditional |
| 2 | IDMO | 5% | 1.482% | Roth or traditional |
| 3 | AVES | 5% | 0.840% | Roth or traditional |
| 4 | AVDV | 10% | 0.655% | Roth or traditional |
| 5 | VXUS | 16% | 0.649% | Roth or traditional |
| 6 | VTV | 15% | 0.431% | Partly sheltered |
| 7 | VTI | 19% | 0.254% | Taxable |
Three things this rests on
How much of each dividend gets the low rate. Part of what a fund pays out is taxed at the dividend rate and the rest at your income rate, which is 17 points dearer at the top bracket. Where a fund files that split, the tool uses the filed figure: 44.48% for AVES, 25% for IDMO. For VXUS and AVDV it borrows the figures Vanguard filed for the funds they most resemble, and for VTI and VTV it assumes the whole dividend gets the low rate. Each assumption pushes its fund toward the taxable account, so the plan errs on the cautious side.
RSST files two readings of itself. It records income inside itself that it has not paid out. Count only what shareholders have been taxed on and it sits near the bottom of the queue; count everything and it goes straight to the top. It belongs in a sheltered account either way, and the cost of getting this wrong is about ten times larger in one direction than the other, so the tool shelters it.
Your yields are not these yields. Every figure is US federal, on filings as of 2026-08-23. State income tax is left out and adds to every line. A yield is the input a ranking like this is most sensitive to, and none of these is guaranteed to hold next year.
Numbers as of 2026-09-02. Corrections lists anything that changed.