Five Worlds · 21-page PDF
The Withdrawal Order Guide
The money can show up simply, even when a lot is happening behind the scenes.
Where your retirement paycheck can come from, why the right withdrawal order can change from year to year, and a simple annual check on the plan behind it.
For most of your working life, payday was pretty simple. Money showed up in checking and you lived your life. Retirement changes who is responsible for creating that paycheck.
Why does it matter which account the money comes from?
Money may come from a taxable account one month, a traditional IRA later in the year, or a Roth account for a particular expense. The deposit into checking looks exactly the same either way. What changes is what happens around it.
A traditional IRA withdrawal may add taxable income. A qualified Roth IRA withdrawal generally will not. One choice may affect Medicare premiums later. Another may change how much of your Social Security is taxable. One may leave a different mix of accounts for the surviving spouse or your children.
The point of withdrawal planning is not to make retirement feel more complicated. It is to handle the complexity underneath so using your money can feel simpler.
Is there one right withdrawal order?
You've probably heard a rule that says to spend taxable money first, traditional retirement money second, and Roth money last. That can be a reasonable starting point in some situations. But your income changes, Social Security starts, required distributions begin, and markets rise and fall. The order can matter. But the right order can change.
The guide walks through six questions that can change where the money comes from in a given year, and ends with a simple annual check.
What this is, and is not
Eight sourced figures sit beside the text, from how each kind of account is taxed and the 2026 federal tax rates to every time since 1970 the S&P 500 fell a quarter or more from a record. The check on your year and the annual check fill in on screen or in print.
It is education, not advice. It does not know your tax picture, and it does not tell you which account to spend from.
Inside the guide
- What you see, and what may be behind it. The $2,500 that shows up in checking, and the decisions that may sit behind the deposit.
- The three places retirement money often lives. Taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts, and where the investments themselves live.
- There isn't one withdrawal order. Why the right order can change as Social Security, Medicare, and required distributions arrive.
- Six questions behind the paycheck. The year you're having, a low-income year, Medicare and Social Security, tax lots, a bad market, and the account you preserve.
- A simple annual check. Nine questions to revisit as the year changes, checked off on screen or in print.