See what the balance alone cannot tell you
Same savings.
A different tax picture.
Explore two connections: how growth can change future withdrawals, and how the account you use can change the cost of spending.
01 / Growth → withdrawal → tax
Your account grows.
What follows?
One hypothetical account owner, ten years before the year they turn 75. Watch how assumed growth changes the first age-75 withdrawal illustration.
Start with $1 million or enter your own pretax balance. Results show ten years of assumed growth—not your starting balance. Enter $0–$100 million; invalid entries leave the last valid illustration unchanged.
01 · Balance
At the end of ten years
Pretax balance on December 31 before the year the owner turns 75.
02 · Withdrawal
Illustrated age-75 RMD
Annual required minimum distribution: preceding year-end balance ÷ 24.6.
03 · Federal tax
Added by that withdrawal
Incremental annual federal ordinary-income tax—not tax on the entire account.
Change the income assumption
After deductions, before this RMD. Not gross income or spending.
How this illustration works
Married filing jointly; 2026 federal ordinary-income brackets are held constant solely to explain the mechanism. Tax = bracket tax on other taxable income + RMD, minus bracket tax on other taxable income. Deductions are already reflected in the income input and held fixed. This is not a forecast of future tax law, inflation or your tax return.
The account owner is assumed to begin RMDs at 75 and use the Uniform Lifetime Table (not the special table for a sole-beneficiary spouse more than ten years younger). Ten full years of constant growth, no contributions, conversions or withdrawals before that year. Return is an assumed net account-growth rate; fees are not separately modeled. No penalties, credits, deduction phaseouts, Social Security taxation changes, capital-gain interactions, state taxes or Medicare surcharges are calculated. Losses are possible.
02 / One purchase. Three funding choices.
What does a dollar cost?
The price tag is only part of the withdrawal. If tax is due, you may need to take out more to keep the amount you want to spend.
Adjust the tax and brokerage assumptions
State rate is a user-selected hypothetical rate, not a calculation for a particular state. It applies to the entire pretax withdrawal and only the gain portion of the brokerage sale. Defaults use 24% federal ordinary income, 15% federal long-term gains and 6.99% state.
What the comparison does—and does not—mean
Qualified Roth withdrawal: no withdrawal tax. Fully pretax account: spending ÷ (1 − federal rate − state rate). Brokerage: spending ÷ [1 − gain share × (long-term gains rate + state rate)]. Each bar uses the same dollar scale. The gain share remains constant across shares sold, and sale proceeds also cover the tax.
This is a fixed marginal-rate example, separate from the progressive-bracket model above. All displayed rates are assumed to apply to every relevant dollar; no bracket crossings, federal/state deduction interactions, net investment income tax, losses, transaction costs, penalties or Medicare effects are modeled. Actual brokerage tax depends on tax lots, holding period and gains/losses.
This compares taxes at withdrawal—not lifetime investment outcomes. Roth contributions or conversions can involve earlier tax. Pretax contributions may have received deductions. No account type is always best, and this is not a recommendation to convert.
If your available spending money is entirely pretax, you have fewer choices about which tax treatment funds the next purchase. That does not mean every withdrawal moves you into a higher bracket.
Connect the decisions
Don't just plan the balance.
Plan how you will use it.
Account location, withdrawal timing and potential Roth conversions belong inside the full retirement plan—not in isolation.
Review prototype only. No information is stored, sent or used to book appointments.