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Where will your money come from?
Income during retirement comes in many forms; Social Security,
Pensions, Annuities, IRAs, Roth, Investments, etc. Some of your
income is Guaranteed and some is subject to Market Risk.
Some of it is Taxable while some is Tax Free. Planning for the
proper balance of these income sources can take a lot of
pre-retirement planning.
Tax Delayed |
Max Taxable Income |
Tax Free |
Social Security |
Long Term Capital Gains & Dividends |
Guaranteed |
Market Risk |
Guaranteed |
Pensions | Annuities | IRA RMD | Other |
Roth | Annuities |
What is your maximum taxable income before entering
Your Personal Tax Hump?
Tax Delayed Income |
Social Security
Your personal sweet spots and the size of your personal tax hump are
defined by your personal Social Security benefit and your marital
status.
Single SSB | Max Tax Free |
Max Pre-Hump | Hump Size |
$20,000 | $13,850 |
$37,418 |
$1,287 |
$30,000 | $12,567 |
$35,121 |
$8,584 |
$40,000 | $10,900 |
$32,824 |
$15,881 |
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Married SSB | Max Tax Free |
Max Pre-Hump | Hump Size |
$60,000 | $17,784 |
$60,458 |
$6,483 |
$70,000 | $15,487 |
$58,162 |
$13,779 |
$80,000 | $13,190 |
$55,864 |
$21,077 |
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There are two personal sweet spots, the taxable income level where
you pay zero taxes and the taxable income level just before your
personal tax hump starts.
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Long Term Capital Gains
Long Term Capital Gains are also tax delayed income so they do increase
the amount of tax free income you can create but they do not significantly
change the width or position of your personal tax hump.
The Government's Tax Math for this example is relatively complex, BUT, all you really need to know is that if you can also have some Long Term Capital Gains, and you can keep them Tax Free, you will save even more tax dollars which will improve your personal retirement lifestyle!
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Maximum Taxable Income |
Guaranteed |
Pension
A pension is basically a Lifetime Contract. You will
receive a fixed monthly income for the rest of your life, and some
pensions also included cost of living increases!
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Annuity
In many ways, an Annuity could be considered a self-funded Pension. It is a
CONTRACT with an insurance company and the payments are
guaranteed for life and there is no Stock Market Risk. If your
Annuity was purchased with untaxed funds from an IRA, your entire annuity
income will be taxable. If it was purchased with after-tax funds, taxation
of your annuity income will be determined by an exclusion ratio. If it was
purchased with Roth IRA funds, your annuity income will be completely tax
free.
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Market Risk |
401Ks and IRAs
Pensions today are being replaced by 401Ks and IRAs. These are merely
different methods of saving money for retirement, but there is NO CONTRACT
and when the money runs out, the income stops, and stock market volatility
and taxes can play significant roles in how long your savings will last.
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Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
When you reach age 70½, you are required to start withdrawing a certain
amount of money from your IRAs and 401Ks each year. The percentage that
you must withdraw increases each year which could eventually push you
into your Personal Tax Hump!
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Other Taxable Income
There are many other sources of taxable income durings retirement; part
time jobs, pension increases, sale of posessioins, etc. Just be careful
that none of this income will be taxed at 40.7% or higher!
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Tax Free |
Roth
Your Roth account is your biggest defense against Your Personal Tax Hump.
Start doing Roth Conversions as soon as possible and don't forget to create
Back Door Contributions by paying your taxes from other funds, not
from the sale of the converted assets.
Note: If you are under 59 ½ and you pay the taxes from the converted funds, the
IRS will consider the Tax dollars taken from your IRA as an early withdrawal and
charge you a 10% tax penalty!
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Guaranteed |
Annuity
Annuity income is normally taxable, but it will be Tax Free if you purchase
your Annuity within your Roth Account!
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Inflation
To see the results of inflation on the Personal Sweet Spots that were create in the
Tax Delayed Income
section above, we increased the 2019 tax brackets,
deductions, and Social Security benefit level by 10% and used the spreadsheet
that is downloadable for you at the end of this discussion to find
the inflated max taxable and hump size values.
Single | SSB | 22% Tax Bracket |
Max Pre-Hump | End of Hump |
Hump Size |
2019 | $30,000 | $39,475 | $3,947.50 |
$35,121 | $2,193 |
$43,705 | $1,500 | $8,584 |
($693) |
+10% | $33,000 | $43,422 | $37,314 |
$45,201 | $7,891 |
In the previous table larger SSB levels decreased our pre-hump taxable income level.
In this example it actually increased our pre-hump taxable income level because
the start of the 22% tax bracket which is also the start of the Tax Hump also increased
by 10%. The pre-hump max income level only increased by 6.24%, not 10%, because the taxability
factors for our Social Security benefits that were established in 1983 and 1993
were specifically designed not to increase with inflation. It should also be noted
that the size of the Tax Hump decreased by a small amount.
Caution! Yes it is true that Married
couples can have more taxable income than Single
individuals, but they should also consider what will happen
to their surviving spouse. If their additional income is
Guaranteed or Required IRA RMDs, as this income is
transferred to the surviving spouse, it could force the
surviving spouse into their Personal Tax Hump which
could cost them thousands of extra tax dollars each year.
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Married couples should also look at the Single Max
Taxable income table when planning their retirement income
sources. The surviving spouse will inherit their larger Social
Security benefit and, assuming that all of their combined
Guaranteed income will continue for the survivor, the
Single Max Pre-Hump income level has to be considered.
They should start doing maximum 22.2% Roth Conversions
every year if a large portion of their Taxable income is
coming from required IRA RMDs.
During retirement, where your income is
coming from is almost as important as how much income you will
receive. In some cases it can actually be more important, so
let's start looking at those income sources!
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