Did you pay for a withdrawal roadmap? Or do you roll your own?

[Sanstar]

I’ve been with FIDO since retiring 10 years ago. A no-charge advisor has been assigned to me from the beginning. Our first meeting was in his office when he walked me through the 401k to IRA roll over process, asked about my short and long term expectations/needs; and risk tolerance.

My question to him was: how is he paid for his time with me and his ideas/recommendations? He said he earns his paycheck by retaining me as a FIDO client. Since then, DH and all our adult kids have rolled and consolidate all their investments to FIDO. Their balances don’t warrant a dedicated advisor but because DH and I have low seven figure amounts, they get the same advisor and service.

I remind DH and kids he is paid not by us, but by FIDO so he will always have to pitch FIDO’s “custom fee services” at each encounter. We give him time to do this, thank him for the info and tell him we’ll keep that information in mind. Then get back to our own agenda.

I learned enough from this forum, initial online course from local college and the occasional Great Courses, plus lecture (highly recommend) and use the FIDO advisor to validate my decisions and ideas before implementing.

In 10 years my portfolio has more than doubled. We give generously to family members, fund first class vacations, tip at least 50% for services, donate to our church, ect…still have enough left to cover taxes for end of year Roth conversions. Never had a negative experience with FIDO. Hope this continues.

 

[dobig]

Self managed via spreadsheet. Educate yourself and you’ll be better off.

I'd rather let my wife force me to watch the 156th version of a Hallmark Christmas special.

Until our taxes are just investment income and some additional basics there's no way I'm taking any chances. Especially when the tax bills run into the 6 figures.

I can't even figure out correct tax loss harvesting as you well know.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I'd rather let my wife force me to watch the 156th version of a Hallmark Christmas special.

Until our taxes are just investment income and some additional basics there's no way I'm taking any chances. Especially when the tax bills run into the 6 figures.

I can't even figure out correct tax loss harvesting as you well know.

All that you need is a mathematically inclined brain, plug in your various income sources - income vs. capital gains and tax brackets, IRMAA and NIIT into a spreadsheet. I have my spreadsheet that helps me figure out whether to itemize vs. taking standard deduction, estimate my taxes etc. Only when my spreadsheet is done before I transfer the numbers into TurboTax.

 

[dobig]

We've found a new FIDO advisor who is well versed in retirement tax planning so we're going to do the minimum $500,000 investment management for the 1% fee. For this they will do our whole portfolio as it figures into our tax planning and we gain access to their more advanced software (probably a selling pitch). Either way, until we better understand all the tax pitfalls heading into retirement we feel spending $5k/year is money well spent.

If after a year we don't see the value and gain all the knowledge we need we'll do like the majority here.

 

[dobig]

All that you need is a mathematically inclined brain, plug in your various income sources - income vs. capital gains and tax brackets, IRMAA and NIIT into a spreadsheet. I have my spreadsheet that helps me figure out whether to itemize vs. taking standard deduction, estimate my taxes etc. Only when my spreadsheet is done before I transfer the numbers into TurboTax.

Some years we just have too much going on. 2 years ago we had RSU's carried over from multiple companies bought and spunoff, timber sales, investment property, what seemed like 3 million stock trades, family care, accelerated deferred comp and I'm sure a host of other things but my head already hurts thinking about it.

Heck with that. I'll gladly throw my CPA $2k and send over all the PDF's and let him get the headache.

 

[CalBird]

I rolled my own, There are so many uncertainties, tax law changes, market conditions. You just have to dance with it.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Some years we just have too much going on. 2 years ago we had RSU's carried over from multiple companies bought and spunoff, timber sales, investment property, what seemed like 3 million stock trades, family care, accelerated deferred comp and I'm sure a host of other things but my head already hurts thinking about it.

Heck with that. I'll gladly throw my CPA $2k and send over all the PDF's and let him get the headache.

We used CPAs for many years, including when we had worked at megacorp with RSUs, when we had our business, rentals etc. We had no energy to figure it all out. Several times the CPAs fxxxed us up and we paid several hundred thousands of dollars in taxes as a result. After we sold our business and retired, I took the time to learn about the various tax laws and brackets and I won't have a CPA do our taxes ever again. I may pay a CPA to confirm my understanding of the (trust) process if my spouse passes away in that one year.

 

[dobig]

We used CPAs for many years, including when we had worked at megacorp with RSUs, when we had our business, rentals etc. We had no energy to figure it all out. Several times the CPAs fxxxed us up and we paid several hundred thousands of dollars in taxes as a result. After we sold our business and retired, I took the time to learn about the various tax laws and brackets and I won't have a CPA do our taxes ever again. I may pay a CPA to confirm my understanding of the (trust) process if my spouse passes away in that one year.

That's exactly how we're hoping to end up. We'll both be retired by summer and want to make sure next year we don't get hit early in retirement with an unexpected tax bill. After that we should be in the same position as you.

 

[jollystomper]

We are fine with DIY, but we have kept our finances simple. Pension, SS (DW current and me in the future), primarily simple index fund and ETF investments in taxable and non-taxable.

Since I would be getting a pension, my plan was to put away enough cash to make up the difference between it and our planned expenses for 3-5 years after retiring. If we fell short, I would consider taking SS. Fortunately we underestimated our retirement income beyond my pension, and though we have spent the way we wanted, it was lower than forecast and did not outpace the cash that was put away and generated after retiring.

Even our Fidelity Advisor says she cannot add anything to our plan (though she still mildly tries to appeal to whatever "greed" I might have and get me to move more of my 401K money into my Fidelity IRA and other instruments ).

 

[Dtail]

That's exactly how we're hoping to end up. We'll both be retired by summer and want to make sure next year we don't get hit early in retirement with an unexpected tax bill. After that we should be in the same position as you.

At least you have a game plan for potentially doing DIY planning for taxes and investing. There are enough knowledgeable folks on this forum who can help fill in the gaps if needed.
Sometimes, one just has to get over the thought process that the "professional" just must be better. Many years ago, especially in the investment area, this was true.
I use this example for folks I know. If I studied the internet inside out and felt I was now an expert who could substitute for a doctor and take out your gallbladder, you would never let me. But unfortunately, the same thinking is often falsely equivocated with investment management.

 

[Dtail]

We are fine with DIY, but we have kept our finances simple. Pension, SS (DW current and me in the future), primarily simple index fund and ETF investments in taxable and non-taxable.

Since I would be getting a pension, my plan was to put away enough cash to make up the difference between it and our planned expenses for 3-5 years after retiring. If we fell short, I would consider taking SS. Fortunately we underestimated our retirement income beyond my pension, and though we have spent the way we wanted, it was lower than forecast and did not outpace the cash that was put away and generated after retiring.

Even our Fidelity Advisor says she cannot add anything to our plan (though she still mildly tries to appeal to whatever "greed" I might have and get me to move more of my 401K money into my Fidelity IRA and other instruments ).

Curious, what is holding you back to not transfer your whole 401k? Do you have a great yield for a Stable Value Fund?

 

[1242Vintage]

I developed my own withdrawal roadmap and manage it during the year.

Part of my career was doing cash flow projections, funding demands, expenses, and cost and schedule risks for large infrastructure projects. This is not so different than creating our personal withdrawal roadmap for retirement.

Occasionally dear wife throws in a wildcard in the roadmap without telling me. She’ll book a cruise or a girls spa week. But I have a contingency in the roadmap to take care of unknowns.

She doesn’t know about the contingency!

 

[jollystomper]

Curious, what is holding you back to not transfer your whole 401k? Do you have a great yield for a Stable Value Fund?

Yes. While currently yielding less than the money market accounts (though it is rising while they are falling), For many years when interest rates were low or zero my SV fund was earning 3-4 percent or more. It is the vast majority of the bond allocation in my AA.

While I moved about about a quarter of it into my tIRA to build a T-bill ladder, and doing Roth conversions as best as possible within our tax bracket, I feel no need to rush and move it all out. I have stuck with just 4 funds since I started 40+ years ago, and it has done fine. The expense charge has been rated among the lowest in the industry.

 

[FlyingCircus]

In this case, i suppose we are lucky that our income will never come close to the $212K IRMAA bracket unless we win the lottery or I was crazy enough to convert over $100K to a Roth. I won't be doing that either because I'm happy paying less than 10% effective on my upcoming TIRA withdrawals instead of effective 22%. Just to maintain our standard of living makes SS 85% taxable anyway - so this straightforward situation doesn't seem to warrant a complicated spreadsheet.

 

[RetiredHappy]

In this case, i suppose we are lucky that our income will never come close to the $212K IRMAA bracket unless we win the lottery or I was crazy enough to convert over $100K to a Roth. I won't be doing that either because I'm happy paying less than 10% effective on my upcoming TIRA withdrawals instead of effective 22%. Just to maintain our standard of living makes SS 85% taxable anyway - so this straightforward situation doesn't seem to warrant a complicated spreadsheet.

I just finished doing my taxes and our income last year was over $300K including a measly $23K in Roth conversion. My goal this year is to keep it $1K below IRMAA first tier and I hope to be successful in doing so. It is going to be tough because SS + annuity + RMD + conservative estimate of dividends in taxable account is already at $1K below IRMAA.

 

[orbops]

I use my own spreadsheet to give me a good estimate of my yearly income, and just calculates the taxes based on the federal tax brackets. I have another spreadsheet for looking at my account balances every year. It estimates RMDs for myself at 75, and another RMD from an inherited IRA, and expected Social Security. I simply enter an expected rate of return, how much my target estimated expenses will be.

My DW and I went to a free one time financial advisor a few years after I retired. He tried scaring my wife into moving all our money into an annuity. We never went back to him.

When I started using it after I retired at 50, my initial retirement balance estimates are now off by 7 years - that is, I'm 7 years higher than where I thought I would be thanks to a strong market these last 9 years. Now that I'm hitting 59 1/2 next week, all my expenses will come from my Rollover IRA to reduce my own RMD at 75 within the 12% bracket, with additional withdrawals taken from my Roth account. Roth conversions are a wait and see based on my income since I'm in the ACA for insurance.

 

[tenant13]

I’ve lost interest in those type of projections when I realized that they have me stuck in the “saving mode” while my problem is spending - I’m not doing enough of the latter. Once I decided that whatever I accumulated makes everything I spend on “free”, I stopped tracking my expenses and projecting them in the future.

Ever since I retired, I’ve been living exactly the way I wanted and every year I end up with more money. And no heirs.

 

[Ben]

I definitely don't pay for this type of service. But I do analyze it often myself, and formally plan for each year as it comes, since there are always different circumstances to consider. 2026 is my 5th full retirement year, so the process has evolved and I have learned a lot.

The single best tool is a tax simulator that calculates federal and state tax as accurately as possible. Ultimately, I created my own in Google Sheets. It's linked to my investment worksheets so every taxable dividend, capital gain, etc. is recorded as it happens. And there are year-end projections for everything. I include a tab with all the variables that change each year.

If you can do this and study the results, you will learn how the different taxation brackets stack up and impact each other. And you can plan how to withdraw most efficiently each year.

I can often be found analyzing the isolated tax rate of an additional $1,000 if I realize LT capital gains vs. convert to Roth, take a non-qualified 529 withdrawal, and so on. It's very enlightening.

As far as longer term planning goes, I have made more attempts at the ultimate Roth conversion worksheet than I'm willing to admit. It's a very complex topic. But I think I know what to do, and I trust my work more than that of an outside party.

The big variable is a large inheritance that will land on me, an only child, hopefully still very much in the future, but realistically no later than my 70s. Between inherited IRAs with 10 year withdrawal requirements and taxable dividends, plus my own RMD, I'm going to be awash in taxes.

I would say - keep refining your analysis. Learn intimately how taxes work if you have any blind spots. It sounds like you can do a great job on this without hiring and relying on someone else.

Great insight! To this, I'll also add that, while I use Boldin, like some others here, I think building your own homegrown tool in Google Sheets really helps with understanding the "mechanics" of what drives taxes and other sources of variability in the net withdraws. Tools like Boldin provide an answer, and many times, the format is much nicer, but in my opinion, if you're going to outsource something like this, it's still a good idea to understand what is going on under the hood.

 

[ggbutcher]

I roll my own.

3 years into retirement, mainly managing IRA withdrawals against pensions and wife's SS, biggest headache is keeping track of estimated tax payments. Topped off with a mutual fund I bought as a stupid AF captain that without warning dumps a capital gains distribution in my lap at the end of most years. Started with spreadsheets, ended up writing a C program that does fed and Colorado taxes so I can run withdrawal scenarios to see where I'm ending up in the brackets.

Credit union we bank with has finally set up to do state withholding, so now I can do a single end-of-year IRA withdrawal to accommodate both tax destinations. Yay.

We're traveling a lot, decided to do that before one or the other was immobilized by whatever, so we've blown through IRMAA every year. I just have to look at other acquaintances' health care insurance fiascos to realize we're doing ok even paying IRMAA.

RMDs, I've just done napkin calculations to see what will be the impact. What it's shown me is I'll be paying taxes into the same bracket as when I was working, so that part of tax-deferment is a bust.

 

[Koolau]

I definitely roll my own. And I've shared that I screwed up in 2024 and broke through the IIRMAA limit (paying for it this year). I look back and see how simple a mistake I made. Should I have paid for a "roadmap?" I don't think so. I think I've learned my lesson and won't make the same stupid mistake again. Am I totally efficient in my withdrawals? Probably not but I'm not paying any fees for outside assistance. I think I'm coming out ahead but who can say for certain?

 

[Gark]

Mine is very simple DIY withdrawals, driven only by RMD’s. The largest holding in my Fidelity IRA is VWINX, (ya, I paid $75 once to get it into Fido) which happens to have the nearly 40/60 AA that perfectly mirrors my happy AA. The Fidelity automatic RMD setup does monthly distribution out of VWINX (it’s all automated!) and the whole portfolio AA is thus maintained. This can continue for many years so if I croak soon, my DW won’t even have to change anything until VWINX is exhausted.

 

[skyking1]

We will be in the "roll our own" category due to the predetermined nature of our primary income streams and relatively low percentage of investments.

 

[Montecfo]

TL; DR: I do everything myself but I have tactics to keep things relatively simple and flexible. My spreadsheet covers just about everything.

Roll my own for sure. Did my own taxes since my first tax return in my mid teens.

I began projecting income/spending over time when I first began thinking about retirement. Probably 20-30 years ago.

My spreadsheet does the heavy lifting. Columns are tax years, rows are income sources, tax calculations and some alternative calculations. The rows include all my income sources and account balances so I can compute and forecast RMDs, QCDs, Roth conversions, HSA withdrawals etc. It incorporates regular tax, cap gain tax, minimum tax, state income tax, NIIT and IRMAA. This allows me to forecast not only the next 20 years, but also this year and next which is useful for estimated tax and short-term tax planning.

The tax calculation is very accurate. I tie the final tax calculation of the year directly to my tax returns. Then that becomes the new starting point for the multi-year forecast. This allows me to figure withdrawal strategy and test different scenarios. Want a new scenario? Just add a column. All the tax computations continue to work.

Here are some things I do not do:
-I don't try to guess or project future tax laws. This is a fool's errand in my opinion.
-I do not try to forecast inflation. I ignore it.

For investment returns I use 3% real as the overall return. This allows me to forecast expenses in current year dollars without inflating them in future years. It also allows me to ignore inflation increases in SS, adjustments to tax rates, etc. All of this makes error checking easy.

Keeping the investment return conservative adds a large measure of safety. So far actual returns and account balances far exceed forecasts but I know this will not always be the case.

I have never used any of the retirement calculators.

 

[INTJ10]

I rolled my own with spreadsheets. The big questions were how much to convert to Roth and our total withdrawal strategy. I felt I might be missing something so I started using Pralana.
My over all strategy didn't change that much after the Pralana analysis but I feel much more confident because the software forces to you to think about a number of issues. Pralana also made it easier to evaluate social security start dates.

Pralana forces you to forecast returns by asset class which made me think about this issue more carefully than I have in the past. This has caused me to tweak our asset allocation.