The $250,000 Mistake Most Retirees Never Know They Made
transcript
show notes
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And On To the Show Notes!
A traditional IRA can look like your money.
But part of it belongs to the IRS.
In Part 3 of the Art of Decumulation series, Tyler tackles three of the most important—and expensive—pieces of retirement tax planning:
Roth conversions, RMDs, and IRMAA.
Because the goal isn’t to avoid taxes entirely.
It’s to control when you pay them and at what rate.
In this episode, Tyler covers:
- Why the years between retirement and RMDs can be your biggest tax-planning opportunity
- How Roth conversions work—and when they can save significant money
- Why filling lower tax brackets deliberately can matter more than minimizing income
- How required minimum distributions (RMDs) can push retirees into higher brackets later
- Why IRMAA is a cliff, not a normal marginal tax bracket
- The importance of planning for the widow’s penalty
- Why retirement tax planning should become an annual practice, not a one-time decision
The core idea:
Your traditional IRA is a future tax bill. The question is whether you choose when to pay it—or let the IRS choose for you.
This is Part 3 of the Art of Decumulation series. Next week: market downturns, sequence-of-returns risk, and when to actually change the plan.
If the show’s been helpful, leaving a quick review on Apple or Spotify genuinely helps.
Hope this gives you something to think about this week.