Retirement Toolkit: How Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) Work
About this episode
Roger Whitney discusses Required Minimum Distributions and their impact on retirement planning while addressing listener questions.
This week Roger explores the idea of "digging where your feet are" and how focusing on what you can do today can reduce anxiety about the future and regret about the past. In the Retirement Toolkit, he explains the basics of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), including when they begin, which accounts they affect, how they're calculated, and strategies for managing them through retirement. Listener questions cover Roth conversions, 401(k) rollovers, donor-advised funds versus direct charitable giving, and healthcare costs before Medicare. Roger closes the episode with a Fourth of July story about unexpected kindness from strangers in rural Texas. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN (00:00) Roger introduces the idea of "dig where your feet are" and explains why focusing on today's actions leads to better retirement planning than living in the future or the past. RETIREMENT TOOLKIT (04:06) Roger breaks down Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), explaining what they are, when they begin, which retirement accounts are affected, how they're calculated, and strategies for minimizing their long-term tax impact. LISTENER QUESTIONS (17:10) Michael asks whether Roth…
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- Mutual Funds vs. ETFs- Which is Better for Retirement?
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