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trad. IRA / Roth IRA - taking money out

I retired early last year, and turned 59 1/2 a few weeks ago. I consolidated my 401k's into a traditional IRA a while back. I also have other investment accounts, but I do not have any income besides the interest, dividends and gains of these investments.

What is the best - and tax optimized - way to take money out of the IRA?

Is it worthwhile considering to transfer a certain amount from the traditional IRA into a Roth one and what are the tax implications?

Thanks!

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1 Reply
LJane29
Employee Tax Expert

trad. IRA / Roth IRA - taking money out

This really comes down to what your budget is and how to minimize what taxes you are willing to pay.  Any distributions will be taxable and there are multiple strategies as to how much to pull.  I am going to give an example based on you being single and that whatever you pull from retirement is your only income.

First, let's say you need $37,000 cash to live off of for the year.

You have to "back into" the amount of money you need to draw in order to end up with $37,000 in cash.  I usually play around with a tax program so see where this happens.

Roughly:  $40,000 pull leads to ($40,000 less standard deduction of $13,850 = $26,150 taxable income) roughly $3,000 in tax so my in pocket is $37,000 ($40,000 less taxes paid of $3,000)

If you live in a state that has personal income tax you need to account for that also.

 

As for converting some of your Traditional IRA to Roth that also comes down to personal preference but if your required draw (to meet your living needs) with also covering your taxes is low then converting some of it should be beneficial in the long run (it would depend on the return you get on the ROTH IRA as to the benefit).

 

Remember that the amounts you convert are also taxable in the year you convert them.

 

I can explain the tax implications but as far as guiding you on what to do I would recommend you reach out to a financial advisor.

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