1. Marry someone who has no savings (not someone wealthy or with tax-deferred assets).What piece of the puzzle am I missing to lower my future RMDs? I am Mr D.I.Y., but am not too handy with spreadsheets.
2. Take distributions (to Roth or Taxable) early in the year so the growth on that part happens somewhere else rather than in tax-deferred.
3. Convert when the markets have dropped significantly since you can convert more shares for the same Roth conversion taxes after share prices have dropped. (Note that this may conflict with #2.) I would seriously consider converting a million or two if the market drops 50% because that is like you would have paid half price on the Roth conversion taxes when those shares rebound. (Decide now if you want to do this as everyone else around you will be panicking and put it in writing in a letter to your future self.)
4. Convert shares of whatever grows the fastest since you want to maximize the growth in Roth as early as possible.
5. Turn more of your tax-deferred assets into bond funds to slow down the growth in tax-deferred.
6. Disclaim any tax-deferred account you may inherit and let others pay the taxes owed as they withdraw.
7. Always remember that the tax-deferred account(s) will continue to grow as long as the annual growth is more than the annual withdrawal (to Taxable, Roth, or QCD) even after RMDs start. That alone might be the reason you temporarily increase your maximum tax bracket for a few years (to make a dent in your tax-deferred).
Statistics: Posted by celia — Sun Nov 30, 2025 2:07 am — Replies 3 — Views 245