Hi Jan,

With Mother's Day weekend here, financial planning might not be top of mind. But if you have a few minutes before the celebrations, this week's article is worth a read.

Tax planning in retirement is rarely about dramatic mistakes. More often, it is about small income decisions that interact with each other in ways that add up faster than expected. One dollar over a threshold can cost you thousands. A withdrawal that looks routine on its own can push Social Security income into a higher tax zone, trigger a Medicare surcharge, or wipe out an ACA subsidy entirely.

This week's article breaks down how these pressure points work and why the real challenge is not understanding any one rule in isolation, but understanding how they all respond to each other at once. It is worth reading carefully, especially if you have been thinking about how to sequence income in the years ahead.
The Hidden Costs of Getting Tax Planning Slightly Wrong 
It is easy to talk about tax-efficient retirement planning in theory. The framework makes sense. Spread income over time, use different account types, and avoid pushing yourself into higher brackets than necessary. On paper, it all feels manageable. 

By Retirement Researcher
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Tax Planning Tradeoffs
Tax planning in retirement is less about chasing the lowest possible tax bill in any single year and more about deciding when you want to pay taxes over time. The real challenge is to manage your income in a way that maximizes after-tax spending power over the course of your retirement, while avoiding unnecessary surprises from the tax code along the way. This has become even more important as recent rule changes have made the system more flexible, but also more dependent on the decisions you make.
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By McLean Asset Management
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Episode 227

Can $1 Really Cost You $20,000 in Retirement? How to Avoid Tax Cliffs

This episode covers the tax cliffs that can hit hardest in retirement, including how the ACA subsidy cliff, Medicare surcharges, and RMDs can combine to push your effective rate well above what your bracket suggests.
LISTEN HERE