Estimate Your Required Minimum Distribution

Once you reach RMD age, the IRS requires you to take a minimum amount out of your 401(k) and traditional IRA each year, and that money is taxed as income. This shows roughly what your first RMD could be, and how it could grow over the next 10 years.

Your RMD age is 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959, and 75 if you were born 1960 or later.

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Traditional 401(k)s and IRAs. Leave out Roth accounts, which have no RMDs while you're alive, and inherited accounts, which follow different rules.

%

The 7% default matches the example in our email course. It's an assumption, not a promise. Try a lower rate too.

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As a share of your balance. Enter 0 if you aren't taking withdrawals.

Enter your birth year and balance to see your estimate.

Why it matters

RMDs can push you into a higher tax bracket and raise your Medicare premiums, and they tend to grow in the years after they start. The years before your RMD age are often a good window to plan for them.

Everyone's situation is different. If you'd like to know what your own RMDs could mean for your taxes, and what you can do before they start, we'd be glad to help.

See how we work with clients

How this works, and its limits

Tap any heading to read the details.

How the estimate works

Your RMD age comes from your birth year under current law: 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959, and 75 if you were born 1960 or later. Each RMD is your balance on December 31 of the year before, divided by the factor for your age in the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (IRS Publication 590-B, Table III).

The calculator treats today's balance as your balance at the end of this year. Each year after that, the balance grows at the rate you entered and the year's withdrawal comes out. Before your RMD age, the withdrawal is the percentage you entered. From your RMD age on, it's the RMD. If you reach RMD age this year, the estimate starts with this year's RMD and uses today's balance in place of last December 31's. If you're already past RMD age, it starts with next year.

Your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year. If you wait, you'd take two RMDs that year: your first one and the one for that year.

Limitations
  • It assumes the same growth every year. Real returns go up and down, and the order they come in changes the results.
  • It doesn't include new contributions, taxes, fees, inflation, or withdrawals above the RMD once RMDs start.
  • If you're still working, you can generally wait to take RMDs from your current employer's 401(k) until you retire, unless you own more than 5% of the company. RMDs from IRAs and from past employers' plans still start at your RMD age.
  • It combines your accounts into one balance. In practice, each 401(k) has its own RMD, while IRA RMDs can be totaled and taken from any of your IRAs.
  • Tax rules change. RMD ages and the table reflect current law and could change.
Results are hypothetical

The results are a projection at an assumed growth rate you choose. They aren't a prediction of what any investment will earn, and your actual balances and RMDs will be different. Results can change each time you use the calculator, including when the calendar year changes, and could change if its assumptions or the tax rules are updated.

Not advice

This tool is educational and general. It doesn't select or recommend any investment and isn't personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.

Your privacy

This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us or stored.