A married couple at age 67 plans to withdraw $10,000 per month from retirement savings and Social Security. They have $1.5 million in a traditional IRA, $400,000 in a Roth IRA, and $500,000 in a taxable brokerage account, plus Social Security benefits totaling $48,000 per year at full retirement age. They need the withdrawals to cover housing, food, travel, and gifts. Planning should extend to about age 95, because sequence-of-returns risk in the first five years and ongoing inflation can drive failures. To net $10,000 monthly, they must cover federal tax, state tax, and Medicare-related healthcare. With taxable Social Security and IRA withdrawals, their estimated annual net cash flow is about $95,600, or about $7,970 per month.
"At 67, a couple should plan for a horizon stretching to age 95. Sequence-of-returns risk in the first five years drives more retirement failures than any other variable. And inflation is not done with retirees. Core PCE has climbed from 125.79 in May 2025 to 129.28 in March 2026, still running above the Fed's 2% target."
"To put $10,000 in the bank each month, the couple must cover federal tax, state tax, and Medicare-related healthcare. Social Security delivers $48,000, of which 85% ($40,800) is taxable at this income level. Assume the couple pulls roughly $135,000 from the traditional IRA. Add the taxable portion of Social Security and ordinary income lands near $175,800."
"The 2026 married-filing-jointly standard deduction is $32,200, leaving taxable income around $143,500. Run that through the 2026 brackets (10% to $24,800, 12% to $100,800, 22% to $211,400) and federal tax comes to about $21,200. Layer on roughly $7,200 of state tax at a 5% average rate, then $10,000 to $12,000 a year in out-of-pocket healthcare above Medicare premiums."
"What lands in the checking account: about $95,600, or $7,970 a month. So the $2.4 million"
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