Withdrawal order
Last updated September 20, 2026
Four named orders for emptying your accounts, ranked by the lifetime after-tax paycheck each one produces.
The four are: cash then taxable then traditional then Roth then HSA, which is the default; Roth last; traditional first; and taxable first. Each is a fixed rule applied every year of the plan.
The order matters because the accounts are taxed differently. Drawing from a traditional account fills your bracket with ordinary income; drawing from Roth doesn't. Moving the same spending between them changes the tax bill for the whole retirement, not just one year.
529 balances are excluded. That money is for education and never enters the withdrawal cascade.
This isn't a tax optimiser. It ranks four fixed sequences; it doesn't work out the best account to draw from each individual year. That's a different, harder thing and we haven't built it.