Investing Blog Roundup: Do RMDs Contribute to Early Portfolio Depletion?

As I’ve written before, the financial planning mistake I encounter most frequently is not a particular bad decision per se, but rather a misallocation of time/energy toward less important financial planning topics, while allowing more critical topics to go unaddressed. And, most often, that takes the form of spending too much time thinking about:

• Exactly what asset allocation to use (beyond the basic stock/bond allocation),
• Exactly which funds to use to satisfy the chosen allocation (beyond “funds that have low expense ratios”), and
• Future required minimum distributions (RMDs).

It’s not that those topics shouldn’t be addressed. They should be addressed. But they are much less important than a range of other topics.

To the extent that RMDs are a problem it’s because they, in some cases, create tax planning inefficiencies. But, as Christine Benz discusses in a recent article, they’re highly unlikely to contribute meaningfully to portfolio depletion, for multiple reasons.

• Could Required Minimum Distributions Cause You to Overspend? from Christine Benz

Other Recommended Reading

• How to Fix the Housing Market from Ben Carlson
• How I Bought a Home Without an Agent After the NAR Settlement from Harry Sit
• Is Home Equity Fake Wealth? from Nick Maggiulli
• IRS Advisory Council Report Defends Workers, Criticizes Budget and Staff Cuts from Martha Waggoner
• Proposed Regulations Provide Guidance on Car Loan Interest Deduction from Martha Waggoner
• When Retirees Go Back to Work Is It a Sign of a Strong Labor Force or a Recession? from Geoffrey Sanzenbache

Thanks for reading!