RETIREMENT WITHDRAWAL SEQUENCER · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · NOTHING UPLOADED

Which account should you spend first?

Enter what you hold in taxable, traditional (pre-tax) and Roth accounts, what you want to spend each year after tax, and your Social Security. The tool runs your plan year by year to your end age under 2026 tax rules and compares the usual withdrawal orders with bracket-filling strategies and Roth conversions. It shows the plan that leaves you the most after tax, how much tax each one pays over the whole retirement, and the schedule behind it. Download it as a CSV.

Your numbers never leave this browser tab. Planning aid, not tax or investment advice. It models one steady return and a simplified household; read the list of what is not modelled before acting. See how withdrawal order works for the method.

Your situation

Accounts at the start

Income

Assumptions

Enter your numbers, then click the button.

How it is calculated

Each year the tool adds Social Security and pension, forces the required minimum distribution (balance divided by the IRS uniform-lifetime divisor, from the age you set), then draws enough from your accounts that what is left after income tax equals your spending. Tax is computed from 2026 brackets and the standard deduction (larger from 65), long-term capital gains stacked on top of ordinary income at 0/15/20%, the taxable part of Social Security from the provisional-income formula, tax on the yield your taxable account pays, and your flat state rate. Balances then grow by the real return. Surplus cash is reinvested in the taxable account. Strategies: three fixed orders (taxable first, traditional first, pro-rata) and twelve bracket-filling plans: each year draw from the traditional account until taxable income reaches the top of the 10, 12, 22, 24, 32 or 35% bracket, spend what you need, and either reinvest or convert the rest to Roth. Ranking: plans that fund your spending to the end age beat plans that do not; then the largest after-tax value at the end, counting traditional money net of your heirs' tax rate.

Not modelled: Medicare IRMAA surcharges, the net investment income tax, the extra senior deduction of 2025–2028, state-specific rules and exemptions, a surviving spouse moving to single brackets, two spouses of different ages, pensions with survivor options, inflation-indexing differences, variable returns and sequence risk, annuities, home equity, long-term-care costs, the five-year Roth rules, and Social Security claiming strategy (see the claiming-age calculator). Unverified: the capital-gains thresholds and the RMD table were typed from the published tables and have not been checked against the primary source; tested against hand arithmetic and invented data, not against a tax return or a planner's software.

Common questions

Which account should I withdraw from first in retirement?

There is no single order that wins. The textbook order is taxable accounts first, then traditional (pre-tax) accounts, then Roth, so tax-deferred money keeps growing. But when most of your savings are in a traditional IRA or 401(k), that order can leave a large balance whose required distributions arrive in your highest-bracket years. This tool runs the textbook order, other fixed orders, and a family of bracket-filling strategies against your numbers, year by year, and ranks them by what you keep after tax.

What does filling a tax bracket mean?

Each year you pick a bracket ceiling (say the top of the 12% bracket) and withdraw from your traditional account until your taxable income reaches it, even if you do not need the cash. The extra can be spent, reinvested, or converted to Roth. You pay tax at that low rate now instead of a higher rate on required distributions later. The sequencer tests ceilings from 10% to 35%, with and without converting the surplus, and tells you which one leaves you the most.

How does it measure which plan is best?

First it checks that your spending is funded every year; a plan that runs out of money loses to one that does not. Then it compares the after-tax value left at your end age: taxable and Roth balances at face value plus the traditional balance less the tax rate you expect your heirs to pay on it. It also reports total tax paid over the whole plan. Everything is in today's dollars, using a real (after-inflation) return you choose.

What taxes does it model?

2026 federal ordinary brackets, the standard deduction with the 65-and-over additions, long-term capital gains rates stacked on top of ordinary income, taxation of Social Security by the provisional-income formula (so a traditional withdrawal can make more of your benefit taxable), taxes on dividends from the taxable account, a flat state rate you set, and required minimum distributions from the age you set. It does not model Medicare IRMAA surcharges, the net investment income tax, the extra senior deduction, state-specific rules, or two separate spouses with different ages.

Is the best plan guaranteed to be optimal?

No. It searches a fixed menu of sensible strategies rather than every possible sequence of withdrawals, and it uses one steady return rather than a market that goes up and down. It also re-runs the winner with returns two points lower and tells you whether the ranking changes, so you can see whether the advantage depends on a good market. Treat the result as a direction to discuss with a tax professional, not an instruction.

Does it work for a couple?

Yes in a simplified way: choose married filing jointly and it uses the joint brackets and deduction, and assumes both spouses are the same age and that distributions follow one set of balances. It does not model the survivor's switch to single brackets, which often makes early Roth conversions look better than shown.

Is my financial information uploaded anywhere?

No. Balances and spending are read and calculated in this browser tab. Nothing is sent to a server, there are no accounts or cookies, and the tool does not save your plan. It works offline once the page has loaded.