Retirement income
Withdrawal order
Withdrawal order is the sequence in which you draw from your taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts in retirement, and it changes how much of your money you keep rather than how much you have.
Also called drawdown sequencing · distribution order · which account first
The three account types are taxed differently on the way out, so the same spending need funded from different accounts produces different tax bills, different Medicare premiums and different amounts left for heirs.
There is no universal right order, which is why rules of thumb do so much damage here. The right sequence depends on your bracket now, your bracket once distributions are required, what else lands in each year, and which account you would rather leave to whom.
What it does not do
A withdrawal order is not set once. It changes as brackets, balances and rules change, and the default (spend whatever is easiest to reach) is a decision by omission that usually costs more than any of the deliberate options.
This entry is a general explanation, not advice for your situation, and it deliberately avoids thresholds and figures, because those are the part most likely to be out of date. Reviewed August 27, 2026. If a decision turns on any of it, ring the office rather than relying on a page.
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These interact with it.
From definition to your situation
Whether this applies to you is a different question.
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