Withdrawal Sequencing & RMD Planner

Which account should you tap first in retirement — taxable, pre-tax, or Roth? The order changes your lifetime tax bill by tens of thousands. Answer six short steps and this planner projects every year to age 95+: four withdrawal orders side by side, your full RMD schedule, and the year-by-year tax under the order you pick.

Tax rules: 2026 IRS figures (Rev. Proc. 2025-32), indexed for inflation in later years · RMD start age by birth year (1951–1959 → 73, 1960 or later → 75) · IRS Uniform Lifetime Table · 2026 QCD limit $111,000 per person

Step 1 of 6

About you

Your birth year sets when RMDs start and how big they are.

Where to find it: you know this one. It decides your RMD start age: born 1951–1959 → RMDs at 73; born 1960 or later → 75; born 1950 or earlier → 72.
Joint filing roughly doubles the width of the federal brackets and the standard deduction — it changes both the tax on each withdrawal and the RMD math for a younger spouse.
Used for household timing. (If your spouse is more than 10 years younger and the sole beneficiary of your IRA, the IRS Joint Life Table gives smaller RMDs — this planner uses the standard Uniform Lifetime Table; see the assumptions.)

Your accounts today

Add up all accounts of each type, across both spouses if you file jointly.

$
Where to find it: your brokerage or 401(k) statement (e.g. Fidelity). Every dollar withdrawn from here is taxed as ordinary income — and this is the account RMDs are forced out of.
$
Withdrawals are tax-free and Roth accounts have no RMDs during your lifetime — which is why most orders spend this money last.
$
Regular brokerage accounts, bank savings, money-market funds. Spending from here first is the conventional order — it lets the tax-advantaged accounts keep compounding.

Income that arrives on its own

Income you receive without touching your accounts. It fills the bottom of your tax brackets before any withdrawal is taxed.

$
Where to find it: your statement at ssa.gov — use the amount at the claiming age you pick below; add both spouses if filing jointly. Enter 0 if you will not claim.
Between 62 and 70. Delaying raises the check — but claiming later also leaves low-income years before RMDs when cheap pre-tax withdrawals (or Roth conversions) fit.
$
Pension, rental income, part-time work, annuity payments — a yearly total, starting the year you retire. Leave 0 if none. This income is taxed as ordinary income in the model.

Spending & timeline

What the withdrawals have to cover, and how long the plan runs.

$
Where to find it: add up a normal year's spending — housing, food, travel, healthcare, everything — after tax. The planner grosses withdrawals up so this amount is left after the year's tax is paid.
Withdrawals for spending start at this age. Years between here and your RMD age are the planning window — income is low, so pre-tax dollars can come out at low brackets.
The last age to project to. 95 is a common planning choice; a healthy couple often plans to 100 for one spouse.

Taxes & growth

Where you live and how your money grows. Everything is projected in today's dollars.

Picking a state fills in its 2026 reference rate below — the state's top marginal rate. Most states use graduated brackets, so lower the rate if your income would sit lower. States that exempt retirement-account income (IL, PA, MS) and states with no income tax are already 0.
%
Applied as a flat rate on your taxable income each year — a simplification; real state brackets vary.
%
A balanced portfolio has historically returned roughly 5–7% a year before inflation. The same return is applied to every account.
%
Long-run US inflation is around 2.5–3%. Results are shown in today's dollars: balances grow at the return minus inflation, and tax brackets are indexed, matching how the IRS adjusts them.

Strategy options

Two levers that change the sequencing math — charitable giving straight from an IRA, and how aggressively to fill low brackets before RMDs begin.

$
From age 70½ you can send money from a traditional IRA directly to charity (a qualified charitable distribution). It counts toward your RMD but is never taxed — up to $111,000 per person in 2026. Enter what you realistically give each year; 0 if you don't give from an IRA.
The “bracket-fill” order pulls extra pre-tax money out each year — even in years you don't need it for spending — until your taxable income reaches the top of this bracket, then invests the extra in your taxable account. The idea: pay 12–24% voluntarily now rather than be forced into the same or higher brackets by RMDs later.
%
Pre-tax money still in the account at the end of the plan isn't worth its face value — whoever eventually withdraws it pays tax. This rate (22% is a common assumption) converts ending balances to after-tax wealth so the four orders compare fairly.
On the next screen you'll see all four orders run on your numbers: conventional (taxable → pre-tax → Roth), bracket-fill, pre-tax first, and Roth first — with lifetime tax, after-tax wealth at the end of the plan, and whether the money lasts.

Your answers are saved in this browser only, so you can pick up where you left off — and the basics (birth year, accounts, state, return) are shared with the other tools on this site, so you don't have to type them twice. Nothing is sent to a server.

© 2026 finance.zoesen.com. All rights reserved. No copying, republication, or commercial use without permission; personal, non-commercial calculation and sharing of results are unaffected. Results are educational estimates only and are not tax, financial, or legal advice.

← Back to home