Your Retirement Roadmap — in Minutes, Not $5,000. Spend with confidence. Stop overpaying taxes. Protect the one who lives longest.
Paid planners charge $120+/year to answer one question: "Are we on track?" This free planner answers it instantly — plus the three fears behind it: "Can we afford to spend?" (most retirees die with 80%+ of savings untouched), "How much are taxes silently taking?" (withdrawal order across your accounts can swing the lifetime tax bill by six figures), and "What happens when one of us is gone?" (one Social Security check, single-filer taxes — the widow trap). It models your real life: taxable, His & Her 401(k)/IRA, Roth, RMD timing for each of you, Social Security strategy and its taxation, Roth-conversion planning, the survivor years, the spending smile curve, bear-market guardrails — and the surtaxes that quietly hit higher incomes (IRMAA Medicare surcharges and the 3.8% NIIT). Built on published research. Your financial inputs never leave your browser.
Enter your numbers — your couple-aware, after-tax verdict appears here instantly.
📖 How to Use — 4 Steps
1
Start with the basics
Top card: both ages, his retirement age, and how long to plan (use the younger spouse's horizon). Enter what you actually spend per year in today's dollars — inflation is handled for you — and the minimum you want to leave heirs ($0 = Die with Zero). Add one-time events: a home sale as +income, a wedding or new roof as −expense.
2
Map your money by owner
In the Money Map, type the dollar value of each piece you own. Rows = what it is (cash / bonds / stocks); columns = whose account it sits in. Example: his Fidelity IRA holds $200,000 of index funds → type 200000 where the His 401(k)/IRA column meets the B3 Stocks row. Skip cells you don't have — every total computes itself.
3
Set taxes & Social Security
With Progressive Brackets on (the default), the tool computes your federal rates automatically from your income each year — many retired couples legally land in the 0% capital-gains bracket. Just enter your state's effective rate and each spouse's Social Security benefit and claiming age from ssa.gov. The survivor years switch to single-filer brackets automatically.
4
Test strategies, compare verdicts
Now experiment — flip one switch at a time and watch three numbers react: the Verdict banner, Lifetime Taxes, and Monte Carlo Success. Try Roth conversions (more tax now, more tax-free Roth and survivor safety later), the 1973 bear start, long-term care years. When the plan holds, hit Save My Plan as a Link and bookmark it.
👥 The Two of You
His age when you start spending from savings.
Age of the younger spouse — the plan runs until then.
Net of tax, today's dollars.
0 = Die with Zero
One-Time Events
Home sale, new car, wedding, inheritance — today's dollars, after tax, keyed to his age.
One day, one of you will manage alone: one Social Security check instead of two, single-filer tax brackets (about half as wide), and an inherited IRA. Modeling it now is how you protect each other
🔒 Survivor tax rates are computed automatically. Progressive Brackets is on, so the survivor years use the real single-filer 10–37% brackets and the halved 0% capital-gains ceiling — based on actual income. No need to guess a rate.
Manual mode: pick the single-filer rates you expect the survivor to land in. (When Progressive Brackets is on, these are replaced by automatic single-filer brackets.)
Either spouse can go first — the engine rolls the deceased's IRA to the survivor, keeps the larger Social Security check, switches to single-filer rates, and drops spending to ~75%. Single-filer brackets are roughly half as wide: the 0% LTCG ceiling falls from $98,900 to $49,450 (2026).
🗺️ Your Money Map — Buckets × Owners (enter dollar amounts)
Rows answer "when will I spend it". Columns answer "whose account, taxed how". Tax-deferred is split by owner because RMDs follow each owner's own age. Roth has no lifetime RMDs and rolls to a spouse tax-free, so one column covers both. Fill only the cells you have.
↔️ Swipe the table sideways to see all columns
Taxable joint brokerage
🧔 His 401(k)/IRA RMD at his 73
👩 Her 401(k)/IRA RMD at her 73
Roth / HSA no RMD, either owner
Bucket Total
💧 B1 Cash
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🏦 B2 Bonds
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📈 B3 Stocks
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Owner Total
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Taxable: principal tax-free, gains at LTCG rateHis deferred: ordinary income, RMD at his 73, drawn before hersHer deferred: ordinary income, RMD at her 73Roth: tax-free, spent last, survives to heirs
⚠️ Assumption about your Taxable account: when you spend from it, the tool assumes you sell investments proportionally, realizing long-term capital gains on the gain portion (gain = withdrawal × (1 − your cost-basis %)). If in reality you live off dividends, interest, or cash reserves without selling, your actual tax may be lower than shown. This keeps the estimate conservative. Set a higher cost-basis % if most of your taxable money is principal.
📌 Two kinds of income, taxed differently: Withdrawals from His/Her401(k)/IRA (and RMDs, Roth conversions) are ordinary income → taxed at the rate below or the progressive brackets. Gains in your taxable account are long-term capital gains → taxed at 0/15/20%. Roth is tax-free. The calculator sorts every dollar into the right bucket automatically.
📊 How capital gains stack: long-term gains sit on top of your ordinary income. Only the slice of gains that still fits under the 0% ceiling (2026: $98,900 MFJ taxable income) is tax-free; anything above it is taxed at 15%. So large RMDs or conversions can push your gains out of the 0% zone.
💵 Annual interest: interest on your taxable cash and bonds is taxed as ordinary income every year, even if you don't spend it. The same cash/bonds inside an IRA or Roth are not taxed yearly. Stock growth in the taxable account isn't taxed until you sell.
⚡ Your Tax Rates — Computed From Your Actual Income
Enter your numbers above; rates appear here.
These are not settings — the tool reads your income each year and applies the real 2026 brackets. Watch them change as you adjust withdrawals, RMDs, or conversions.
Flat rate on 401(k)/IRA withdrawals (manual mode)
Flat rate on taxable-account gains (manual mode)
Your effective state rate (0 if no state income tax). Most states are progressive — use the average rate you expect, not the top marginal.
Share of your taxable account that is original cost (not gains). Higher % = less tax. 60% is typical.
2026 MFJ. Single is auto-halved for the survivor. Update yearly.
Per person 65+. Counted automatically by age — see the live total below.
Temporary 2025–28 deduction, per person 65+. Set 0 if income >$150K or after 2028. irs.gov →
Itemized, QBI, QCD, etc. Leave 0 for standard deduction.
💡 About Taxable Cost Basis: only the gain portion of your taxable account is taxed when sold (gain = value × (1 − basis%)). Example: $100K worth at 60% basis → $40K is taxable gain if sold. This is not a "do I sell" switch — enter your real basis even if you don't plan to sell. Unsure? 60% is typical for long-held holdings; higher if mostly principal, lower if mostly appreciation.
💡 You may qualify for the 0% capital gains bracket (2026 MFJ taxable income under $98,900). Your taxable-account withdrawals could be nearly tax-free — but note the survivor's single-filer ceiling is only $49,450.
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Progressive Federal Brackets (recommended)
ON = the tool applies the real 2026 10–37% brackets to your actual income each year, automatically. The manual rate dropdowns and the survivor-rate dropdowns are hidden because they're no longer needed — everything is computed. Survivor years auto-switch to single-filer brackets. OFF = you pick one flat rate from the dropdowns instead. Tax thresholds change yearly — update the deductions and 0%-gains ceiling above from irs.gov →
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Tax Social Security benefits (provisional-income rule)
Up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxable as ordinary income, depending on your other income. This is a real and often-surprising tax — turning it on shows how RMDs and conversions can drag your SS into the taxable zone.
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Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT, 3.8%)
A 3.8% surtax on investment income (interest, dividends, realized gains) once your MAGI tops $250,000 (MFJ) / $200,000 (single) — fixed thresholds that never inflation-adjust, so more households are pulled in every year. Stacked on the top 20% capital-gains rate, your real marginal rate on gains becomes 23.8%. Big Roth conversions or a home sale can trigger it by pushing MAGI over the line. Muni interest and retirement-account withdrawals are exempt from the surtax itself but conversions still raise MAGI.
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IRMAA — Medicare premium surcharge
Once on Medicare (65+), a high MAGI adds a surcharge to Part B & D premiums — a "cliff" that can cost a couple $2,300–$10,000+/year, per person. It counts muni interest too. The tool applies it by MAGI each year (real law uses a 2-year lookback). This is why conversions are often front-loaded before 63.
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Model RMDs at each owner's age 73
His and her forced withdrawals computed separately from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table; excess reinvested in taxable
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Annual Roth Conversions — defuse the RMD & widow traps5
Each year, move money out of His and/or Her 401(k)/IRA into Roth and pay the tax now — at today's low married rates — so it grows tax-free forever, never has RMDs, and shields the survivor from single-filer rates
"Smart" converts exactly enough each year to reach the top of your chosen bracket — never tipping into the next one. This is the core tax-optimization a planner charges for.
Each year the tool computes your RMDs + taxable Social Security first, then converts just enough to fill this bracket — keeping every converted dollar at or below this rate.
Paying from a taxable account moves the most into Roth and is the textbook approach. "Withhold" subtracts the tax from the converted amount itself — use this if your taxable balance is small, so conversions don't stall.
💡 Higher earner delays to 70 — that check becomes the survivor benefit she may collect for decades. Lower earner can claim at 62.
Taxed as ordinary income. Enter rental net of expenses & depreciation. K-1 capital gains go in the field below, not here.
Qualified dividends & K-1 long-term gains — taxed at the lower 0/15% capital-gains rates, stacked on your income.
Municipal-bond interest — federally tax-free. Adds spendable cash, no federal tax. (May raise taxable SS.)
Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustment. 0 = tracks your inflation input exactly.
🎛️ Strategy Switches & Stress Tests
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Spending Smile Curve (Blanchett 2014)
Research on thousands of real retirees: spending naturally falls ~1.5% a year while you're active, bottoms out around 84, then ticks up for healthcare. ON = realistic. OFF = spending grows with full inflation every year (more conservative, requires more money)
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Dynamic Guardrails (Guyton-Klinger 2006)
A simple promise to yourself: in any year your withdrawal rate drifts 20% above where it started (usually after a market drop), cut optional spending 10% for that year only. This small flexibility is exactly why you can safely spend more than the old 4% rule
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Stress Test: 1973-Style Bear Start
The worst start in modern history (1973–74): stocks drop 14.7%, then 26.4% more, in your first two retirement years. If your plan survives this opening, it survives almost anything
The expense that actually breaks retirements: nursing or memory care at the end. U.S. median runs ~$110–130K per year. Turn on to load those costs into your plan's final years and see if the money still holds
U.S. median nursing home: ~$110–130K/yr (private room); memory care often more. Cost is inflated to future dollars and added on top of the smile curve in the plan's final years.
📊 Your After-Tax, Couple-Aware Results
📅 A plan is a snapshot, not a one-time answer. Bookmark your saved link and re-run it whenever life shifts — a raise, a move, a market drop, an inheritance, a health change — and at least once a year. Markets and tax laws change; your roadmap should too.
Monte Carlo Success
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of 500 market paths
Initial W/D Rate
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Final Assets
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Lifetime Taxes
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on withdrawals
Survivor Years
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she manages alone
Legacy Goal
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Roth at the End
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tax-free to heirs
📖 How to read the two numbers above:Monte Carlo Success — we replay your exact plan through 500 randomized market futures (booms, crashes, everything between); the % shows how often your money lasts the whole plan. 85%+ is strong, 70–85% needs tweaks, below 70% means change something. Initial W/D Rate — your first-year spending gap ÷ total portfolio. Under 4% = very safe even without flexibility; 4–5.6% = safe with guardrails on; above 5.6% = beyond what the research supports.
Navy = total (nominal) · Red dash = legacy goal in today's dollars, shown inflated to each year so it lines up with the nominal curve · Green = taxable · Gold = his deferred (drains first: earlier RMDs + drawn first) · Purple = her deferred · Blue = Roth (survives). The 🕊️ row in the table marks the survivor transition.
📋 Year-by-Year — Both Ages, Both RMDs, Every Tax Dollar
Ages H·W
Spending (net)
Income (SS+other)
Withdrawn (gross)
Tax Paid
His RMD
Her RMD
Roth Conv.
Taxable Acct
His 401k/IRA
Her 401k/IRA
Roth
Total
Today's $
Legacy
Withdrawal order: B1→B2→B3 for market safety; within each bucket Taxable → His 401k/IRA → Her 401k/IRA → Roth for tax efficiency (his first — his RMDs arrive sooner, so draining his account early softens the future forced-income spike). Withdrawn (gross) minus Tax Paid = the net cash you actually spend. Years showing $0 tax are real — withdrawals from the taxable account can be legally tax-free: return of principal plus the 0% long-term-gains bracket if you qualify. 🛡️ = guardrail trim · 🕊️ = survivor transition: one SS check, single-filer rates, the deceased's IRA rolls to the survivor.
🎓 The Research Behind This Tool
😊 The Spending Smile
Blanchett, D. (2014). J. Financial Planning, 27(5):34–42
Real household data: spending declines ~1.5%/yr in real terms, bottoms near 84 at ~25% below initial, then rises modestly with healthcare. Flat-inflation planning over-saves and under-lives. 2015 Montgomery-Warschauer Award winner.
🛡️ Dynamic Guardrails
Guyton, J. & Klinger, W. (2006). J. Financial Planning
Trimming spending 10% when the withdrawal rate drifts 20% above start allows a safe initial rate of 5.2–5.6% instead of 4%. Small flexibility, much higher living standard.
When one spouse dies: two SS checks become one (the larger survives), tax filing flips from MFJ to single — brackets halve, the 0% LTCG ceiling drops from $98,900 to $49,450 — and the deceased's IRA rolls to the survivor with RMDs continuing on her age. Income falls while rates rise. For age-gap couples this isn't a tail risk; it's the central planning problem, and the reason this calculator tracks every account by owner.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How much can we safely spend in retirement without running out?
The famous 4% rule is a worst-case floor, designed to survive the single worst starting point in market history — not a spending guide. Guyton-Klinger guardrails research supports 5.2–5.6% for retirees willing to trim 10% in bad years. But those are gross, single-lifetime numbers — this planner computes the after-tax, two-lifetime version, including the survivor years. Enter your numbers above and the verdict banner gives you your answer.
What is the "widow trap"?
The triple squeeze a surviving spouse faces: ① income drops — two Social Security checks become one (only the larger survives); ② taxes rise — filing switches from married-joint to single, where brackets are roughly half as wide and the 0% capital-gains ceiling falls from $98,900 to $49,450; ③ forced income continues — the inherited IRA's RMDs keep coming, now taxed at those higher single rates. For couples with a big age gap, the younger spouse may live this reality for 10–20 years. Toggle the Survivor Scenario to see it in your own numbers.
Which account should we withdraw from first?
This tool's order inside each bucket: taxable → his deferred → her deferred → Roth. Taxable first because principal is tax-free and gains may fall in the 0% bracket. His deferred before hers because his RMDs arrive sooner — draining it early softens the future forced-income spike that pushes survivors into high brackets. Roth absolutely last: tax-free compounding is most valuable with the longest runway, has no RMDs, and passes to heirs tax-free.
What is the 0% capital gains bracket — and what happens to it for a survivor?
Married filing jointly with 2026 taxable income under $98,900 pays 0% federal tax on long-term gains. For a single filer the ceiling is $49,450 — almost exactly half. A couple comfortably in the 0% bracket can find the surviving spouse paying 15% on the same gains. This halving is a core mechanism of the widow trap and a major reason to harvest gains and do Roth conversions while both spouses are alive.
When should an age-gap couple claim Social Security?
Higher earner delays to 70; lower earner can claim at 62. His delayed benefit is what she inherits as the survivor benefit — each year of delay is a permanent 8% raise she may collect for decades. Claiming at 62 vs 70 changes the check by 76%. Verify at ssa.gov.
Why does this planner track His and Her retirement accounts separately?
Because legally there's no such thing as a joint IRA or joint 401(k) — every tax-deferred account has one owner, and Required Minimum Distributions begin when that owner turns 73. If he's 7 years older, his forced taxable withdrawals start 7 years before hers. A calculator that merges the accounts gets the timing, the tax brackets, and the reinvestment flows wrong for nearly a decade. That's why the money map has a His column and a Her column.
Do retirees really spend less as they age?
Yes — Blanchett's household data shows real spending declining ~1.5%/yr, bottoming ~25% below initial by 84, then ticking up with healthcare. The survivor adjustment (~75% of couple spending) layers on top of this curve.
What is sequence of returns risk?
A bear market in your first retirement years forces selling stocks at the bottom — permanent damage. The 1973 stress test applies −14.7% and −26.4% in years one and two. The cash bucket exists so equities ride it out untouched.
Is my data saved anywhere?
Your financial inputs — every number you type — never leave your browser and vanish when you close the page. They are never uploaded, stored, or shared with anyone. Like most free websites, this page may display ads, and ad networks can use cookies to measure visits — that's standard web traffic measurement, separate from your entered numbers, which stay on your device.
⚖️ Disclaimer & Honest Assumptions
Educational tool, not financial or tax advice. TaoThrive is not a registered investment advisor or tax professional. Throughout the tool, a gold superscript (like 3) marks a setting with a simplifying assumption — tap it to jump here, where the matching item below flashes.
Simplifications:① The main projection uses fixed average returns; the Monte Carlo success rate adds 500 randomized market paths (stocks ±17%/yr volatility, bonds ±6%, cash ±1%) — a model, not a guarantee.② By default, marginal rates are applied as flat rates; the optional progressive mode applies approximate inflation-indexed federal brackets with the standard deduction. Social Security taxation now uses the provisional-income rule (0–85% of benefits includible) — a simplification of the IRS worksheet. IRMAA Medicare surcharges (per person 65+) and the 3.8% NIIT are now modeled and can be toggled off; both use current-year MAGI (real IRMAA uses a 2-year lookback). The Social Security taxation thresholds ($32K/$44K MFJ) and the NIIT threshold ($250K MFJ) are fixed in statute and never inflation-adjusted — modeled correctly here, so more of your income is pulled into these taxes over time, exactly as the law works. IRMAA brackets are held at 2026 levels.③ One flat state rate.④ Constant cost-basis percentage.⑤ Interest on taxable cash and bonds is taxed yearly as ordinary income; qualified dividends and muni interest have their own fields. Roth conversions are modeled as a flat annual amount taxed at your ordinary rate with tax paid from the taxable account — real conversion strategy involves bracket-filling year by year, where a CFP/CPA adds value; tax-loss harvesting and QCDs are not modeled.⑥ Survivor scenario assumes full spousal IRA rollover and survivor benefit step-up per current SSA rules; spending drops to 75%; either spouse may be modeled as passing first.⑦ SS uses the FRA-67 formula — verify at ssa.gov.⑧ The long-term care stress test applies a flat annual cost in the plan's final years; real LTC costs vary widely by region and care level.
Use this for direction and magnitude. Before acting, consult a fee-only CFP® and a tax professional.
TaoThrive answers the questions that decide a couple's retirement: can you safely spend, how much will taxes quietly take across your accounts, and how the survivor fares when one of you is gone. It models His & Her accounts separately, each spouse's RMDs and Social Security, Roth-conversion timing, and the surtaxes (IRMAA, NIIT) that catch higher incomes — all free, all in your browser.
Why Trust Us
Every calculation runs locally — your financial inputs are never uploaded, stored, or shared. The methods are built on published, peer-reviewed research (cited above) and tested against worked tax examples. We're independent: no advisory firm owns us, and the tool stays free, supported by clearly-marked ads. Ad networks may use standard cookies to measure visits — separate from the numbers you enter, which never leave your device.
Begin Beneath Your Feet
"A nine-story tower rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet." — Tao Te Ching, Ch. 64
A secure retirement is compounded from small, steady decisions. Run your plan, save the link, and revisit it as life changes — start where you stand, today.
