Tools/Retirement withdrawals & early access/Retirement Withdrawal Order Calculator✓ CHECKED AGAINST WORKED EXAMPLES · SEP 29, 2026

Which accounts should I withdraw from first in retirement?

Compare four orders for drawing on your taxable, pre-tax and Roth accounts, on the same spending and 2026 tax rules, and see the lifetime tax and the amount left at 95 under each.

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Age you start withdrawingyearsThe plan runs from this age with today’s balances under 2026 law, as if you retired now. It sets when required minimum distributions start.Plan until ageyearsTaxable accounts$An example: brokerage and bank accounts. Your Money Map holds one invested total and does not split accounts, so enter your own.Cost basis of the taxable accounts% of valueAn example: the share you paid in. The rest is gain that is taxed when you sell.Pre-tax accounts$An example: traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b). Withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income.Roth accounts$An example: Roth IRA and Roth 401(k). Qualified withdrawals are untaxed.Spending each year, after tax$Prefilled from your Money Map, in today’s dollars. Every order meets this each year while the money lasts.Social Security each year$An example, in today’s dollars. Your statement at ssa.gov has your estimate at each claiming age.Real return on every account% a yearThe Money Map’s assumption: 7% before inflation and 3% inflation, about 3.9% after. Nothing steady in real life.Dividends paid by the taxable accounts% a yearAn example: the share of the balance paid out each year as qualified dividends and taxed. The rest of the return is unrealized.Tax rate your heirs would pay on pre-tax accounts%An example: it values what is left in pre-tax accounts at the end of the plan.

Filing status

A single filer.

Age it starts

Bracket to fill in the fourth order

Each year, pre-tax withdrawals up to the top of this bracket, never less than the required minimum distribution.

BEST ORDER FOR YOUR NUMBERSPROPORTIONAL COMES OUT AHEAD

+$46,983vs the usual order

From 65, spending $60,000 a year after tax from $250,000 in taxable accounts, $500,000 pre-tax and $150,000 in Roth, with $30,000 of Social Security from 67: proportional leaves the most, $765,502 at 95 after your heirs' tax, and costs $69,573 of federal tax over the plan. Drawing taxable first, the traditional advice, costs $88,203 and leaves $718,519 at 95, $46,983 less than the best. Required minimum distributions start at 75.

Best order

Proportional

Lifetime tax, best

$69,573

Lifetime tax, usual

$88,203

Left at 95, best

$765,502

UNDERSTAND YOUR RESULT

LIBRARY CHAPTERTurning Savings into IncomeHow much a portfolio can pay each year, why the order of returns early in retirement matters, ways to make a withdrawal plan sturdier, and a basic order for drawing from accounts.LIBRARY CHAPTERRoth Conversions: When Paying Tax Early Pays OffA conversion trades tax now for tax-free money later, and it pays only when today's rate is lower than tomorrow's or the tax comes from outside the account. How to size one to a bracket, and the Social Security, Medicare and subsidy costs it can trigger.

Terms:Withdrawal order

Federal tax paid and what is left at 95, by order

Federal tax over the planLeft at 95, after the heirs’ tax

Taxable first

$88k

$719k

Pre-tax first

$80k

$729k

Proportional

$70k

$766k

Fill bracket

$94k

$643k

taxable first: $88,203 of tax, $718,519 left; pre-tax first: $80,390 of tax, $728,689 left; proportional: $69,573 of tax, $765,502 left; fill bracket: $93,740 of tax, $643,341 left. The orders spend the same and differ only in when the tax is paid and how much the accounts grow in between.

Federal tax each year: proportional against the usual order

ProportionalTaxable first

Tax changes when income does: Social Security starts at 67 and required minimum distributions at 75, which force pre-tax money into taxable income whether or not you need it. Spending is the same in every order; only the timing of the tax differs.

Proportional, every five years

Age	From taxable	From pre-tax	From Roth	Federal tax	Balances left
65	$17,135	$34,270	$10,281	$1,686	$870,840
70	$8,581	$17,162	$5,149	$892	$842,780
75	$3,870	$26,516	$2,322	$2,707	$844,166
80	$3,859	$26,613	$2,316	$2,788	$837,323
85	$3,855	$26,713	$2,313	$2,881	$828,534
90	$4,090	$26,352	$2,454	$2,896	$817,549
95	$5,087	$24,484	$3,052	$2,623	$804,960

Where the money comes from each year to meet $60,000 after tax, with a single return. Required minimum distributions of $456,694 in all are included in the pre-tax column.

What moves the needle

Each row re-runs the calculation with one change. Click to apply.

How it's computed

FORMULA

Each year: RMD = pre-tax balance ÷ Uniform Lifetime divisor (from the applicable age); dividends = yield × taxable balance; find the withdrawal total so that withdrawals + Social Security − federal tax = spending

Federal tax = ordinary rates on pre-tax withdrawals + the taxable part of Social Security, less the standard deduction (with the amount for 65 and over); gains and dividends taxed at 0/15/20% on top

Taxable part of Social Security = up to 50% / 85% of benefits once half the benefit plus other income passes 25,000 / 34,000 (single) or 32,000 / 44,000 (joint)

Then every balance grows at the real return. Estate value = taxable + Roth + pre-tax × (1 − heirs’ tax rate)

Everything is in today's dollars, as if the brackets and the standard deduction rise with inflation and are held at their 2026 values; the tax law is 2026's, held fixed, and the senior deduction is left out because it expires after 2028. The Social Security thresholds ($25,000 and $34,000 single, $32,000 and $44,000 joint) are not indexed to inflation by law, so over the decades more of the benefit becomes taxable than shown.
Required minimum distributions start at 75 (73 if born 1951 to 1959, 75 if born 1960 or later, IRC 401(a)(9)(C)(v)) and use the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. Roth accounts have no lifetime requirement.
Taxable accounts pay 2.0% a year as qualified dividends, taxed in the year they are paid; a sale realizes gain in proportion to the unrealized share of the balance. Gains left at death are not taxed (the basis step-up).
Not counted: state income tax, the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, Medicare Part B and D income-related premiums, Roth conversions, taxes on a spouse’s survivor filing, and market swings. Returns are steady and equal in every account, which they are not.
The best order is the one that never runs out and leaves the most after the heirs’ tax; if one runs out sooner it loses. A different goal, such as the least tax alone or the most to spend, can pick a different order.

WORKED EXAMPLE · SAMPLE NUMBERS

In the first year, age 65, proportional draws $17,135 from taxable, $34,270 from pre-tax and $10,281 from Roth, pays $1,686 of federal tax and leaves $870,840 after a year's growth. At age 75 the required minimum distribution is $19,091.

SOURCES

[1]Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (Table III, Uniform Lifetime)Internal Revenue Service [2]26 U.S. Code § 401(a)(9), required distributions (applicable age 73 and 75)Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute [3]26 U.S. Code § 86, Social Security and tier 1 railroad retirement benefitsCornell Law School, Legal Information Institute [4]Rev. Proc. 2025-32: 2026 inflation-adjusted tax items (brackets, standard deduction, capital gains rates)Internal Revenue Service, 2025 [5]Tax-savvy withdrawals in retirement (the traditional and proportional approaches)Fidelity Viewpoints [6]Set up your retirement withdrawals (withdraw from taxable accounts first)Vanguard [7]Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQsInternal Revenue Service

HSBuilt by Hussain Sehorewala · checked against worked examples · Sep 29, 2026

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Questions about this result

There is no single best order: it depends on your balances, spending and the tax rules. The traditional advice, which Fidelity and Vanguard both describe, is taxable accounts first, then pre-tax, then Roth, to let tax-advantaged money grow longest; Fidelity also describes a proportional approach and bracket-managed withdrawals as alternatives. This page tests that against drawing pre-tax money first, in proportion, and up to a chosen tax bracket, on your numbers, so you can see which leaves more after tax.

Because pre-tax accounts keep growing and their required minimum distributions can push a large balance into higher brackets late in life. Drawing on them earlier, while income is low, spreads the tax over more years and at lower rates. It works best when there are years of low income before Social Security and required distributions begin.

Amounts the tax law makes you take each year from pre-tax retirement accounts, starting at the applicable age: 73 if you were born from 1951 to 1959 and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. The amount is the December 31 balance divided by a factor in the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, such as 26.5 at 73 and 24.6 at 75. Roth accounts have no lifetime requirement.

Up to 85% of your benefits can be taxable, depending on “provisional income”: half your benefits plus your other income. Below $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (joint) none is taxable; above $34,000 or $44,000 up to 85% is. Because pre-tax withdrawals count as other income, drawing them can make more of your benefits taxable, which this page includes.

Converting pre-tax money to Roth in low-income years is another way to spread the tax, and it can beat any of these orders. This page compares drawing orders only; the Roth conversion ladder page covers converting.

No. State income tax, the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax and Medicare’s income-related premiums are left out, and each of them depends on the same income the orders move around, so real differences between orders can be larger or smaller than shown.

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