For decades the message to American workers has been consistent: Contribute to a 401(k), capture the match, leave it alone.
Millions did exactly that, rolling old plans into IRAs and sitting through three or four bear markets to build the balances pensions used to provide.
Then, somewhere in their early 70s, the rules changed. The account they spent a career filling comes with a withdrawal schedule they didn’t write. That’s the paradox of required minimum distributions (RMDs) .
The better you are at saving inside a tax-deferred account, the more likely your RMD becomes a tax problem rather than a paycheck.
Calculate your first RMD now, even if it’s a decade away
RMDs generally begin at 73 for people born from 1951 through 1959, and at 75 for those born in 1960 or later. (PDF) You don’t have to wait to see the number. Take your current traditional IRA and 401(k) balances, divide by 26.5 (the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor for age 73), and you have a working estimate of your first required distribution: roughly 3.8% of the balance.
On $2 million, that’s about $75,000 of taxable income in your first RMD year, whether you spend it or not.
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Then do the second half of the math, which most people skip. Write down what you actually need each year, and subtract. A retiree who needs $80,000 and is required to take $120,000 isn’t $40,000 richer; the surplus lands in a brokerage account, and the tax return counts it as income anyway.
That gap is the number to manage, and it widens with age. The table factor falls to 12.2 by 90, so the same balance throws off about 8.2% a year instead of 3.8%.
Find out which threshold you’ll cross first, then aim below it
Rather than tracking every rule, identify the one that catches you soonest. Put your projected income at RMD age next to these four numbers and see which is closest:
$44,000 joint, $34,000 single. Above that combined income, up to 85% of your Social Security is taxable . The lower tier starts at $32,000 and $25,000. These base amounts are fixed in statute rather than indexed, so a rising RMD walks you up the scale permanently.
$150,000 joint, $75,000 single. Above that modified adjusted gross income , the new deduction for older adults starts to phase out: An extra $6,000 per person 65 and older, or $12,000 for a couple in which both qualify, available for 2025 through 2028. It’s the threshold most retirees don’t yet know exists.
$218,000 joint, $109,000 single. Cross it, and your Part B premium goes from $202.90 a month to $284.10, plus a Part D surcharge. Call it $975 per person for the year.
The action item is narrower than it sounds: In any year you control your income, target a number just under the nearest threshold instead of trying to minimize taxes generally. Coming in $2,000 under $218,000 is worth more than shaving $2,000 off a bracket in the middle of a range.
Watch the calendar at 63, and take your RMD before you convert
The Medicare surcharge runs on a two-year lookback , set from the return filed two years earlier. That makes age 63 a real deadline: the income you report that year determines your premium at 65.
If a large Roth conversion or a property sale is coming, doing it at 62 rather than 63 can keep it out of the calculation entirely.
Roth conversions are the main tool for shrinking future RMDs, since Roth IRAs aren’t subject to distributions during the original owner’s lifetime. But the conversion is taxable income in the year you do it, so it can trip every threshold above. Two rules make it manageable.
First, size the conversion to a threshold, not to a goal: “convert as much as possible” is how people buy themselves a surcharge.
Second, once you’re subject to RMDs, take the distribution before you convert, because an RMD isn’t eligible for rollover or conversion .
If you give to charity, donate from the IRA instead of your checkbook
In 2026 you can direct up to $111,000 per person from an IRA to a qualified charity as a qualified charitable distribution , available from age 70½, counted toward your RMD, and excluded from income rather than deducted .
The exclusion is the point: Because the money never enters your adjusted gross income (AGI), it doesn’t push you toward the thresholds above, which a cash donation and a deduction won’t do for you.
Two mechanics matter. The transfer has to go directly from the custodian to the charity, and donor-advised funds don’t qualify . Tell your custodian in the fall, not in late December.
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Run the survivor’s tax return before you need it
Take this year’s income and refile it mentally as a single taxpayer: one Social Security benefit instead of two, single brackets and Medicare thresholds at half the joint amounts . The IRA balance and the RMD barely change when a spouse dies, so the survivor often pays a higher rate on less income.
If that exercise moves the survivor into a higher premium tier, you’ve found a concrete argument for converting more now, while joint brackets and joint thresholds are still available. That’s a decision to make in your 60s, not a discovery to make in your 80s.
A $3 million IRA looks better than $2 million on a statement. But if the larger balance produces bigger forced distributions, more taxable Social Security and higher Medicare premiums, the balance alone doesn’t tell you much.
The 401(k) generation was measured on what it could accumulate. In retirement, the number that matters is how much of it you keep.
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