📅Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Calculator
Calculate how much the IRS requires you to withdraw from your Traditional IRA or 401(k) each year, and project how those amounts grow over the next 15 years.
Your Numbers
Your Results
| Age | Balance (Start) | RMD |
|---|---|---|
| 73 | $800,000 | $30,189 |
| 74 | $816,000 | $32,000 |
| 75 | $831,040 | $33,782 |
| 76 | $845,093 | $35,658 |
| 77 | $858,001 | $37,467 |
| 78 | $869,766 | $39,535 |
| 79 | $880,045 | $41,708 |
| 80 | $888,637 | $43,992 |
| 81 | $895,324 | $46,151 |
| 82 | $900,123 | $48,655 |
| 83 | $902,556 | $50,992 |
| 84 | $902,658 | $53,730 |
| 85 | $899,864 | $56,242 |
| 86 | $894,239 | $58,832 |
| 87 | $885,531 | $61,495 |
What Is Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)?
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are the IRS's mechanism for collecting deferred taxes from Traditional IRA and 401(k) accounts. Because contributions to these accounts were pre-tax, the IRS requires you to begin withdrawing, and paying taxes on, a minimum amount each year starting at age 73 (under the SECURE Act 2.0 rules for those born in 1951 or later).
For early retirees, RMDs are often not an immediate concern, but they can become a significant planning issue later: a large Traditional account balance left untouched through your 60s can trigger substantial forced withdrawals in your 70s and 80s, pushing you into higher tax brackets and increasing Medicare premium surcharges (IRMAA). Understanding your projected RMD trajectory is a key input to deciding whether to do Roth conversions during your early retirement gap years.
Here is a concrete example of why this matters. Suppose you retire at 55 with a $1.5 million Traditional IRA, live off taxable savings and Social Security through your late 60s, and let the IRA grow untouched at 7% per year until age 73. By 73, that $1.5 million has grown to approximately $3.8 million. Your first year RMD at 73, using the IRS Uniform Lifetime factor of 26.5, is roughly $143,000, added to your other income and taxed as ordinary income. If you're also receiving $30,000 in Social Security, your taxable income could exceed $170,000, putting you squarely in the 22-24% federal bracket and triggering Medicare IRMAA surcharges. The solution is to use the early retirement gap years proactively: convert $30,000-50,000 per year from Traditional to Roth while your income is still low, reducing the balance that will eventually generate forced RMDs. This strategy requires careful income management to stay under ACA subsidy cliffs and IRMAA thresholds, but for someone with a large Traditional balance and a long early retirement runway, the long-term tax savings are often substantial.
How This Calculator Works
The IRS calculates your RMD each year by dividing your prior December 31 account balance by your life expectancy factor from the Uniform Lifetime Table (IRS Publication 590-B, updated in 2022). This calculator applies that formula to your current balance and projects 15 years of RMDs, accounting for account growth at your expected return between distributions.
Personal Considerations
RMDs have an unusual personal dynamic for early retirees: many people who retired specifically to control their financial life find themselves forced to withdraw on the government's schedule, not theirs. For people who planned a Roth conversion ladder specifically to avoid this, seeing the projected RMD amounts makes the conversion math feel less abstract and more urgent.
There's also an anchoring issue: because RMDs start relatively small in the early 70s, people sometimes underestimate how quickly they grow. A $1 million account at 73 produces a roughly $38,000 RMD; the same account at 80 produces $50,000 or more. Seeing the 15-year projection in a table, not just the current year, makes the trajectory visible in a way that changes planning decisions.
Status quo bias and loss aversion combine to delay the proactive Roth conversions that would reduce this problem. There is no immediate deadline for conversion in your early 60s, which means it is easy to defer year after year while doing nothing. Loss aversion makes paying taxes voluntarily feel more painful than the larger forced tax bill at 73 that results from inaction. The reframe that helps: every dollar converted to Roth at a 12% rate in your early retirement years is a dollar that will not be forced out at a 22% or 24% rate as an RMD. The tax saving is real and compounding. It just requires paying a bill before it arrives, which is psychologically uncomfortable even when it is financially obvious.
If what you're feeling goes beyond what a calculator can help with, licensed clinicians are available at SanaNetwork.com, a referral network founded by this site's founder, Dr. Yoendry Torres.
Frequently Asked Questions
The IRS imposes a 25% excise tax on the amount you failed to withdraw (reduced to 10% if corrected within two years). It is one of the harsher tax penalties in the code, and a fairly common mistake for people who are financially comfortable and don't need the money.
No. Roth IRAs have no RMDs during the account owner's lifetime, which is one of their main advantages for estate planning and for controlling taxable income in retirement. Roth 401(k)s previously had RMDs, but the SECURE Act 2.0 eliminated those starting in 2024.
Your RMD is calculated separately for each Traditional IRA, but you can aggregate the total and take it from any one (or combination) of your IRAs. 401(k)s must be handled separately, account by account.
Yes, and this is one of the primary Roth conversion strategies. Converting Traditional IRA money in your early retirement years (especially if your income is temporarily low) reduces the balance subject to future RMDs. This calculator's projection can help you estimate how much conversion would be needed to bring projected RMDs to a manageable level.