Withdrawal Sequencing

What order should you spend your accounts? Part of Your Retirement Number

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Your numbers

Round figures are fine. You can change any of these and recalculate.

Taxable account balance ($) Brokerage / regular savings. Only the gain portion is taxed when you sell. Enter 0 or a positive number.

Tax-deferred balance ($) Traditional IRA / 401(k). Withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Enter 0 or a positive number.

Tax-free balance ($) Roth IRA / Roth 401(k). Qualified withdrawals are tax-free. Enter 0 or a positive number.

Target annual spending, after tax ($) What you need from your savings each year on top of other income, after taxes are paid. In today's dollars. Enter 0 or a positive number.

Other guaranteed income, after tax ($/yr) Enter an after-tax estimate; this tool does not model how much of your Social Security is taxable. Enter 0 or a positive number.

Your current age Where the plan starts. Enter an age between 40 and 110.

Plan-to age How long the money needs to last. Enter an age greater than your current age (up to 120).

Assumed growth on all accounts (%) A single steady rate applied to every account. Enter a rate between 0 and 20.

Ordinary tax rate on tax-deferred (%) A flat rate applied to traditional IRA / 401(k) withdrawals. Enter a rate between 0 and 60.

Advanced assumptions

Taxable withdrawal that is taxable gain (%) Of each dollar sold from the taxable account, how much is a capital gain. Default 50. Enter a percent between 0 and 100.

Capital-gains rate (%) The long-term capital-gains rate on the gain portion. Default 15. Enter a rate between 0 and 40.

RMD start age When required minimum distributions begin. SECURE 2.0 default is 73. Enter an age between 60 and 80.

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Please read — what this does and does not do

This is a simplified illustration, not an optimizer or a plan. It uses one flat tax rate and one steady growth rate for every year.
It does not model how much of your Social Security becomes taxable, IRMAA Medicare premiums, the net investment income tax, state tax, or year-by-year bracket changes — any of which can change the best order.
A real "fill the bracket" or blended strategy — partial tax-deferred withdrawals or Roth conversions up to a bracket line — often beats all three simple orders. That's a planning conversation, not a calculator.

Withdrawal Sequencing

Your numbers

How the three orders compare

How long the money lasts

Reading the trade-off

Please read — what this does and does not do