Re: 401K investment

Sorry I did not give enough info before I am 71 years old — 3 years retired
Approximately $190K has to be drawn
By Aug where do I put &175K of that so as not to pay all the taxes at one time??
Please help. My regular income is around
$3,500 a year and just depositing it all
would certainly throw my tax bracket out of whack. I need your advice. Thanks!

Terry Says:  Wait — who calculated that withdrawal amount?  Is your entire IRA in one place with one custodian — or do you have multiple IRA accounts?  Something doesn’t seem quite right here.  If you’re 71, you should certainly be earning Social Security or a government pension!  I know you’re not living on $3500 a year — did you mean $35,000?  And a withdrawal requirement of $190,000 implies that you have around $3 million in your retirement account — even assuming you are taking two years’ distributions at one time! Is that the case?  As I said, something doesn’t seem quite right about the situation you describe.  Your plan custodian can calculate the correct annual amount.  Make sure you include all IRAs in the calculation.

Well, in any case, when you take your Required Minimum Withdrawal (RMD), you should ask the custodian to withhold taxes on it.  And if you really are getting that huge amount every year (or even half that amount), you’ll need to get a good CPA to set you up on a payment of quarterly estimated taxes.  Put the money in a bank money market account, where you can write a quarterly check for estimated taxes. It won’t change the total amount you owe — but it will ease the pain of writing one big check!  And you’re required to make those quarterly payments so that by the time your return is due, you’ll have paid in at least 90 percent of the amount that will be due (including the amount that was withheld from your payout).