Recently, we've been hearing from people who have been enrolled in Social Security, seeing their taxes go up, and not understanding why. There are ways to keep more of your retirement income, but first, let’s look at how it can be taxed. We know that Social Security benefits aren’t tax-free. In fact, up to 85% of the benefits you receive each year could be subject to tax, depending on your household income. Moreover, 100% of your withdrawals from traditional IRAs and traditional 401(k)s will likely be considered taxable income. When making these withdrawals, we work closely with our clients to ensure they’re taking what they need but not enough to push them into the next tax bracket. We’ve recently encountered individuals who took advantage of high interest rates by putting their money in CDs or money market accounts. The interest on these is taxed at the same federal income tax rate as the money you receive from paid work, which is why people are seeing their income tax rates jump into the next bracket. That's why it's crucial to collaborate with a tax professional to develop a strategy to mitigate that sudden increase, just like we would with IRAs or 401(k)s. Furthermore, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is set to sunset on Jan 1, 2026, which could exacerbate the problem further. When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ends, this means tax rates will revert to their previous higher levels. The act doubled the standard deduction and
Workers are not new to the idea of saving as much money as possible for retirement. However, there is less conversation about spending the money they’ve worked hard to save, and that shift can cause stress in any retiree's life. Major worries among retirees include not being able to spend as much as before retirement, not being able to leave money to beneficiaries, facing unknown healthcare expenses, and outliving their money. If you don’t have a strategy in place to help pay for these expenses, you could end up making a mistake that will cost you more in the long run. For instance, we talked to a client who wanted to add an addition to her home. Her original plan was to take the money from her IRA to pay for it, which would have been close to $150,000 before tax. If she proceeded with that, she would have increased her tax bracket, increased taxes on her social security, and increased her Medicare premiums. For example, her Medicare premiums alone would have increased by over $5,000/year. However, because we were able to coordinate her strategy with our in-house tax team, we were able to suggest a better alternative strategy and engineer a solution that fit her specific needs. We took about one-third of the money from her IRA, which kept her tax bracket and premiums the same. Then, we worked with her to get a home equity line of credit or HELOC. Finally, we were able to use dividends from her portfolio– which