Most people do not realize it, but they may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table in the early years of retirement.
Not because they did something wrong. But because of how they are taking income and the order those decisions are being made.
In this video, I walk through a real example of a couple who were doing what felt natural. They were pulling from their taxable accounts first and delaying their IRA withdrawals. On the surface, everything looked fine.
But behind the scenes, they were missing a key window where their income was low enough to take advantage of tax planning opportunities. That included things like using their full standard deduction and potentially doing Roth conversions at very low or even zero tax rates.
Instead, those early years passed without taking advantage of that opportunity.
Later on, when they eventually needed to rely more heavily on their IRAs, the withdrawals became larger, their taxable income increased, and it started to impact things like Social Security taxation and Medicare premiums.
This is something I see more often than people expect.
Retirement income is not just about how much you take. It is about when you take it and where it comes from. Those decisions are all connected, and small choices early on can have long term consequences.
The goal here is not to make things complicated. It is to help you think more intentionally about how your income strategy fits together, especially in those first few years.
Because that is often where the biggest opportunities are.
If you are approaching retirement or already taking income, this is an area that is worth paying closer attention to.
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