6 Questions to Ask Before You Take Your First Required Minimum Distribution
Sam's List Editorial | 2026-08-03
6 Questions to Ask Before You Take Your First Required Minimum Distribution Your first required minimum distribution is the one most likely to go wrong, because it is the only one that comes with a choice of timing, and the choice is a trap for a lot of households. The rules themselves are not complicated. What makes the first year hard is that several decisions land at once: which accounts are in scope, when to take the money, how the distribution interacts with Medicare and Social Security, and who is responsible for the arithmetic. Here are the six questions worth settling before the money moves. 1. Which of My Accounts Are Actually Subject to an RMD? Not all retirement accounts are treated the same way, and this is where assumptions cost money. Traditional IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and most employer plans including 401(k) and 403(b) accounts are generally subject to required minimum distributions. Roth IRAs are not subject to RMDs during the owner's lifetime. Under SECURE 2.0, designated Roth accounts inside employer plans are no longer subject to lifetime RMDs either. There is also a still-working exception that applies to some employer plans: if you are still employed and are not a 5 percent owner, the plan may let you defer distributions from that employer's plan until retirement. It does not apply to IRAs, and it depends on the plan's own terms, so read the plan document rather than assuming. 2. Should I Take the First Distribution This Year or by April 1? Under SECURE 2.0, the required beginning age is 73 for people who turned 72 after December 31, 2022, moving to 75 beginning in 2033. For the first year only, you may delay the initial distribution until April 1 of the following year. That option is where the trap lives. Delaying means two distributions land in the same tax year, the delayed first one and the regular second one, and stacking them can push taxable income into a higher bracket, surcharge, or phaseout than either would have alone. Sometimes deferral still makes sense, for instance if the current year included an unusually large one-time income event and next year looks much lighter. The point is that this should be a calculation, not a default. Run both years side by side before choosing, and note that the answer depends on assumptions about future income and future law, neither of which is certain. 3. Can I Aggregate These Accounts or Not? Aggregation rules differ by account type and people get this wrong in both directions. Traditional IRA required distributions may generally be calculated per account and then taken from any...
