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How withdrawals happen

Last updated October 24, 2026

When your plan needs money in retirement, MangoDime pulls from your accounts in a fixed order: cash, then taxable, then traditional, then Roth, then HSA. You can change that order, and compare how different orders perform, on the Compare page.

This order is a common-sense default, not a claim that it's the single best sequence for everyone: it is an adjustable setting on your plan, not hardcoded.

529 accounts are the one exception: money in a 529 is earmarked for a specific kid's college costs and is never drawn on for anything else, no matter what order you set.

The Compare page's withdrawal-order tool ranks four named variations of this same sequence (the default order, Roth-last, Traditional-first, and Taxable-first) against your own plan, and shows what each one actually produces.

Age changes what a withdrawal costs. Before 59½, money from a traditional account pays income tax and a 10% penalty. A Roth gives back what you put in for free at any age; money you converted into it comes out free once that conversion is five years old and pays the 10% penalty before then; growth pays income tax and the 10% penalty. So before 59½, whatever order you set, your plan takes the free part of a Roth before any traditional money that would owe the penalty. From 59½, a Roth is free. An HSA is free whenever it pays the year's medical costs, which your plan already counts; anything else pays income tax, plus 20% before 65.