Quote:
Originally Posted by CDRE
I just remembered another path I had found on this ER forum. It is an extremely detailed spreadsheet that seems to be supported and frequently updated from the Bogleheads forum. Here's a link to the overview and it has a link to download the free spreadsheet:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=97352
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I've been reading this thread because I have the same question - how best to withdraw money given that I have most of my money in tax deferred accounts and all the variables that go along with the withdraw with an eye on reducing taxes. The tread and the spread sheet show that this is a pretty complex analysis and it is also a very important thing to understand. I'll do my best to absorb it. Thanks all for the information.
For my rant, it is this: I go to the FA (Fidelity) and they want to charge me about 1% (which on my $2M is $20K/year) for what I can tell is to handle my portfolio. I find this no more complicated than figuring out a comfort level for an asset allocation and managing it (rebalancing it) on a regular basis. Something I can do. Then I ask them about taxes and an analysis on a withdraw scenario and they have a blank stare. I would be much more willing to pay them to handle the withdraw function in a tax beneficial manner - something I understand but find it hard to do and which will take more time than I care to commit. I think this has much more potential to get screwed up than managing my asset allocation. And, in doing so, cost some real money. My simple example is riding the 12% tax bracket and then realizing you have a large one time expense - like a roof. Well, if not planned correctly, that roof can cost an extra 10% (going from 12% to 22%). Thanks to this forum, I learned and obtained a HELOC to give me some flexibility. It just seems like this is an area that some professional help, coordinated with your FA would be worth spending a bit of money on and again, all I got is a blank stare from Fidelity. If I was going to hand over my money to a full service advisor, they would certainly have to have a very good handle on this topic.