Creating a Tax Efficient Retirement Withdrawal Strategy
In working with my retired or soon-to-be retired clients, perhaps the most frequent question I am asked is “What is the best way to withdraw from my investment and retirement accounts in retirement in order to provide me my desired retirement income?” I believe they ask me this question because many of them have investments in a mix of different accounts with varying tax characteristics such as taxable investment accounts, IRAs, 401k or retirement plan accounts, Roth IRAs, and possibly real estate investments such as rental property. In addition to that, they may also have retirement income coming in from multiple sources and at different times such as Social Security income, pension income, and deferred compensation. If you are interested in increasing what you can spend in retirement and reducing the impact taxes have on your retirement nest egg, it is important to have a multi-year retirement income plan that takes into account the impact taxes will have on both your retirement income sources, and the withdrawals you take from your different investment and retirement accounts.