Stop paying more federal tax in retirement than you need to.

The order in which you draw from your Traditional 401(k), Roth IRA, and taxable brokerage accounts is one of the most consequential decisions in retirement planning — and one of the least understood. Draw from the wrong account in the wrong year and you push yourself into a higher bracket, trigger unnecessary Social Security taxation, and lose the opportunity to harvest capital gains at 0%.

Enter your account balances, Social Security income, filing status, and target monthly income. The planner models three strategies under current 2026 IRS rules.

Traditional First: Draw pre-tax accounts first. Simple, but may trigger large RMDs at 73 that push income into a higher bracket.

Roth First: Draw tax-free accounts first. Minimises current tax but may leave a large Traditional balance subject to future RMDs.

Mixed Bracket-Filling: Draw from all accounts in the optimal proportion each year — filling brackets efficiently and harvesting capital gains at 0% in low-income years. Typically the most tax-efficient long-term approach.

Also includes a Roth Conversion Analysis — modelling whether converting Traditional funds to Roth before retirement makes sense given your bracket and the TCJA expiration after 2025.

Federal tax only. Based on 2026 IRS rules. Updated after each IRS announcement. For educational purposes only. Not financial or tax advice.