MarketWatch
Smart withdrawals can reduce taxes, extend your nest egg in retirement
There’s plenty written about saving for retirement, but not so much about how to spend what you’ve saved: A Google search produced more than 15 times as many results for “how to save for retirement” as for “how to withdraw money during retirement.” The conventional wisdom holds that you should withdraw from your nonretirement financial assets first, then your tax-deferred accounts (IRAs and 401ks) and then whatever tax-exempt accounts (like Roth IRAs) you might have. Less well known but more tax-efficient retirement-spending strategies can, by reducing the tax hit on your withdrawals, actually extend the life of your next egg, and that could mean the difference between running out of money and leaving something to your heirs.
