A worked example
Seeing the RMD years before they arrive
Raj and Priya, both 66, married, with $1.6M pre-tax between them, $40k/yr of Social Security, and $90k of annual spending.
“What do our tax brackets look like once required minimum distributions start stacking on Social Security, and how does converting $80k a year before then change the picture?”
What the projection shows
The year-by-year bracket chart with and without the conversions: how far RMDs push taxable income once they start, how each path's IRMAA exposure differs, and the lifetime-tax comparison, all under assumptions they can edit.
What the projection also found
Nothing was missing from the inputs. These follow directly from the numbers above, under the assumptions this example uses.
- The $80,000 converted this year pushes income past the top of the 0% band, so $9,807 of gains and dividends that would have been tax-free are now taxed $249. Your ordinary bracket didn't change, so a bracket table wouldn't show this.
The planner opens with this household already filled in. Change the balances, the ages or the assumptions to match your own situation, then run it.
A projection based on stated assumptions. Not financial or tax advice.