Retirement withdrawal strategies: tax-efficient portfolio drawdowns

#83: You’ve worked hard all your life. At retirement, it’s time to kick back and relax, right?

Not so fast.

You still have to get THROUGH retirement.

That means knowing how to draw down your portfolio to:

1. meet all your monthly cash flow needs
2. cushion against unexpected expenses
3. minimize tax liability
4. ideally help your kids / grandkids, give to charity, or leave a legacy
5. ensure your retirement nut doesn’t run out before you do

This is very challenging because you have to forecast things you simply can’t know with certainty. Inflation rates. Market returns. Sequence risk. Tax rates. Your health condition and anticipated healthcare needs.

So, how can retirees plan their retirement portfolio withdrawals to actually enjoy retirement and not worry about running out of money?

This week, I sit down with Steve Parrish, Co-Director of the Center for Retirement Income at The American College of Financial Services, to talk about tax-efficient portfolio withdrawal strategies in retirement.

We discuss:

• Key principles retirees should understand when deciding which assets to draw down and in what sequence
• How those principles change when you have alternate monthly income sources (like rental real estate, pension, etc)
• Why your wealth bracket determines what is the most tax-efficient sequence of portfolio withdrawals
• How soon-to-be and current retirees can protect themselves against sequence of returns risk
• When it makes sense to use legal tools like tax-free gifts, GRATs, etc, to reduce tax liability on retirement assets
• Why you might want to pay taxes now to do annual Roth conversions to ratchet down your IRA/401ks and the ticking tax time bomb attached to them
• Portfolio withdrawal advice for early retirees (FIRE)

Check it out here:

https://hackyourwealth.com/retirement-withdrawal-strategies

Do you worry about running out of money in retirement? If so, what is the biggest reason why – not saving enough, spending too fast, market tanks during retirement, something else? Let me know by leaving a comment.

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Steve Parrish
• The shockingly un-simple math behind safe withdrawal rates (HYW035)
• How to FIRE with confidence, step by step (HYW060)
• How to use a bond tent to reduce sequence risk (HYW068)
• How long will your retirement savings last?
• Schedule a private 1:1 consultation
• HYW Facebook community

 Intro/Outro: Old Bossa by Twin Musicom.