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They Almost Paid $3 Million in Taxes. One Change Saved $2 Million.
Saturday, 19 September, 2026
If you have $3 million saved for retirement, you also have a silent partner: the IRS. Most people assume their tax bill in retirement is fixed. It isn't. In this episode, Kevin walks through a real client scenario using retirement planning software to show exactly how retirement taxes work, and why they behave so differently from the taxes you paid while working. Here's what most retirees don't realize: not all retirement income is taxed the same way. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income. Roth distributions are generally tax-free. Gains from a taxable brokerage account often qualify for lower long-term capital gains rates. And Social Security? Up to 85% of your benefit can become taxable, depending on your other income. Those four income streams don't just sit side by side. They interact. There's also a window, sometimes called the "retirement tax window," that opens between the day you stop working and the day RMDs begin. Kevin shows how one couple with $3 million saved was projected to pay nearly $3 million in lifetime taxes, and how a proactive Roth conversion strategy reduced that figure to under $900,000.
