IRA and Rollover IRA

You have one portfolio. You can partition it how you will, but you need to consider the total picture and should pay some attention to what goes where.

For example, I have a retired woman, whose funds are about 50/50 pre-tax/post tax money. Interest on CDs is taxed as ordinary income, but dividends are tax favored. So, even though it's counter intuitive, her post tax money is where the index funds are and the CDs are in the IRAs. The tax tail doesn't wag the portfolio dog, but it does help determine which accounts hold which assets.

It may seem a bit of a stretch, but for some it makes sense to view their social security benefit as a bond or annuity. If you receive say $20K/yr in SS, it's approximately valued as $500K in the portfolio for purposes of balancing stock/bonds/etc.

JOE

You should consider the overall asset allocation of all your retirement assets, whether they are held in IRA, 401(k), or taxable accounts. It makes sense to split things up so you hold tax-efficient investments like index funds and muni bonds in your taxable account, and less tax-efficient investments like REITs, a core bond fund, and actively-managed stock funds in your tax-advantaged accounts. When you get closer to retirement you also get to start worrying about what accounts to draw upon first and juggling your asset allocation between accounts correspondingly. :-P

OTOH, if you have other savings for non-retirement purposes (child's college fund, new house fund, etc) you should manage those separately than your long-term savings. Typically anything for a goal

I don't think you have a choice in the matter. If you have taxable and IRA money at Vanguard, then each one will be in a different portfolio, with its own list of funds. Even if you have taxable money and IRA money in the same mutual fund, they will have different account numbers because they're in different portfolios.

Not to split hairs, but we are likely using the word 'portfolio' to mean different things. I use it to mean the total listing of one's investment assets. The pie chart with everything in it. The number of accounts it's spread across and its pre or post tax status shouldn't really change that. The actual asset classes contained within are part of the allocation process. The only time I'd refer to an individual having more than one portfolio is, as Sandra suggested, when a subset of accounts are for a completely different purpose. My child's college savings is not consider part of my own portfolio. JOE

Fair enough. I just checked my Vanguard accounts, and discovered that they display three distinct portfolios: Mine, my wife's, and joint.

Within my portfolio is my individual account, my traditional IRA account, and my Roth IRA account.

Within each account is a list of mutual funds, each with a distinct account number.

This is where it gets slightly confusing, because each account may comprise several funds with different account numbers.

So the main point is that Vanguard treats IRA money and taxable money as two different accounts, even if some of the investments on both sides of that divide are in the same mutual fund.

"Andrew Koenig" wrote

I think the number associated with each Vanguard fund is called a "fund number." I imagine it's part of Vanguard's system of tracking its funds and facilitating communications.

Don't you find it easier, for one, to track on what you have to pay taxes each year by having two different accounts in this instance?

Lots of other reasons, perhaps prominently the IRS Code likely says though shall have separate accounts for IRAs from taxable accounts. So the IRS too can keep an eye on you. :-)