Asset location is where most taxable investors leave the biggest free improvement on the table. Mechanism: Different asset classes generate different kinds of taxable income. Placing high-tax assets in tax-sheltered accounts and low-tax assets in taxable accounts can meaningfully change after-tax outcomes. It costs nothing to reorganize location, and the compounding effect over decades can rival good security selection. Market translation: Bonds generating ordinary income often belong inside an IRA while long-term equity positions can sit in a taxable account at lower capital gains rates. Failure mode: The mistake is treating all accounts as one pool and ignoring the tax character of each return stream. Review question: Ask whether the market is mispricing the mechanism or simply narrating it loudly. That is the kind of small conceptual habit that compounds into better decisions over time.