The $250,000 Mistake Most Retirees Never Know They Made

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And On To the Show Notes!

A traditional IRA can look like your money.

But part of it belongs to the IRS.

In Part 3 of the Art of Decumulation series, Tyler tackles three of the most important—and expensive—pieces of retirement tax planning:

Roth conversions, RMDs, and IRMAA.

Because the goal isn’t to avoid taxes entirely.

It’s to control when you pay them and at what rate.

In this episode, Tyler covers:

• Why the years between retirement and RMDs can be your biggest tax-planning opportunity
• How Roth conversions work—and when they can save significant money
• Why filling lower tax brackets deliberately can matter more than minimizing income
• How required minimum distributions (RMDs) can push retirees into higher brackets later
• Why IRMAA is a cliff, not a normal marginal tax bracket
• The importance of planning for the widow’s penalty
• Why retirement tax planning should become an annual practice, not a one-time decision

The core idea:

Your traditional IRA is a future tax bill. The question is whether you choose when to pay it—or let the IRS choose for you.

This is Part 3 of the Art of Decumulation series. Next week: market downturns, sequence-of-returns risk, and when to actually change the plan.

If the show’s been helpful, leaving a quick review on Apple or Spotify genuinely helps.

Hope this gives you something to think about this week.