Retiring With $2 Million: Which Account Should You Withdraw From First?

Align Your Retirement · Nov 3, 2026 · 10m · transcript

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Spend your brokerage account first, then your 401(k) or IRA, and save the Roth for last. It's the standard withdrawal order, and for some people it works. But if most of what you saved is pre-tax, leaving the 401(k) alone can set up a tax problem that doesn't show up until your mid-70s.

In this episode, I walk through Theresa, 60 and single, retiring with $2 million, about $1.5 million of it pre-tax. I show what happens if she follows the standard order, what her first withdrawal could look like instead, and how the answer changes over her first few years of retirement.

In…