Your fund should send you Internal Revenue Service form 1099-DIV by Monday. It tells you how much in dividends and capital gains you received last year. In some cases, those distributions can be painful. Presumably, the capital gains resulted from fund managers' smart moves. Nevertheless, it doesn't take a genius to figure that the less you pay to the government, the more you have for yourself.
Most people have more retirement savings opportunities than they can actually use.
And if you have a fund that trades wildly or throws off lots of taxable income, this is the place to put it. In this case, tax-free municipal bonds are what you want. Munis are long-term IOUs issued by states, cities, counties and municipal agencies, such as airports. Because interest from muni bonds is free of taxes, their yields usually are less than taxable bonds. Muni bonds have been so battered recently that some muni fund managers are loading up on shares of their own funds.