Retirement Withdrawal Order Calculator (This Year)

Updated July 30, 2026. Quick answer (2026): Enter balances by account type, this year’s spending need, and your own rates. The tool ranks taxable against tax-deferred by real marginal cost, takes any RMD first because it is mandatory, and places Roth last on purpose. One year, deterministic, no forecast.

What this tool does, and what it refuses to do

It compares the marginal tax cost of one more dollar from each account type this year, and orders your withdrawals accordingly. It does not project returns, future tax brackets, or a lifetime drawdown path.

That restraint is deliberate. A multi-year optimiser's answer is driven by return assumptions, future bracket assumptions and longevity — none of which anyone knows — and presenting that stack of guesses as a recommendation is false precision. A single-year marginal comparison is something you can check by hand.

The four sources, and what each one really costs

• RMD: ordinary income, and not optional. It is taken first because the law requires it, not because it is cheap.
• Taxable brokerage: only the gain portion is taxed, at your capital gain rate. A dollar withdrawn from an account with a 40% embedded gain and a 15% rate costs 6 cents.
• Tax-deferred: every dollar is ordinary income at your marginal rate.
• Roth: zero tax today.

Why Roth is pinned last, even though it is free

If you rank purely by this year's cost, Roth wins outright and the tool drains it first. That is arithmetically correct and financially indefensible — it spends the only asset whose growth is permanently tax-free to save a few thousand dollars now. The order here ranks taxable against tax-deferred on genuine marginal cost and holds Roth in reserve regardless.

Where the default flips

Taxable-first is not a law. With a high embedded gain and a low ordinary bracket, the taxable account is the expensive one: a 95% gain at a 20% capital gain rate costs 19 cents per dollar, more than a 12% ordinary bracket. The calculator checks this rather than assuming, which is the main reason to use it instead of a rule of thumb.

Related

• Taxable first withdrawal myth
• Why roth comes last in withdrawal order
• Withdrawal order with rmds started
• Withdrawal order and irmaa brackets

Methodology

• This is a single-year, deterministic comparison of the marginal tax cost of one more dollar from each account type. It does not project returns, future brackets, or a lifetime drawdown path, because those depend on assumptions no calculator can verify.
• Every rate is a USER INPUT. Ordinary brackets, long-term capital gain brackets and IRMAA tiers are all indexed annually, so none of them is hardcoded anywhere in this cluster.
• A required minimum distribution is taken first because it is mandatory, not because it is cheapest. Roth is placed last regardless of the single-year arithmetic, which would otherwise drain it first.
• Figures were computed by two independently written engines that agree to the cent, with invariants asserting RMD-first ordering, Roth-last ordering, and that a shortfall is reported rather than silently satisfied.
• Federal only, and excludes state tax, the taxation of Social Security benefits, and ACA premium credits.

Educational estimate, not tax advice. Confirm anything that changes a filing or distribution decision with a CPA.

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