An educational tool
Your Retirement Tax Picture
Think of your retirement income as a layer cake. Wages, pensions, and IRA withdrawals fill the bottom layers. Dividends and long-term gains sit on top. And some income — Roth withdrawals, for one — never touches the cake at all. Which layer you cut into each year changes your tax bill.
This two-part tool helps you see it: first a short questionnaire about how you think about withdrawals, then an interactive cake you can build with your own numbers.
Educational estimates only — not tax, legal, or investment advice. No account numbers, ever.
Part 1 · About 8 minutes
What’s your withdrawal style?
Nineteen short statements about taxes, simplicity, family, and safety reserves. Rate each from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) — go with your first instinct. There are no right answers.
Married? You can each answer separately and see your styles side by side.
Your result is yours to see. No email required.
Part 2 · Interactive
Build your tax cake
Move the sliders or type amounts. Ordinary income fills the bottom layers — the standard deduction first (taxed at 0%), then each bracket. Qualified dividends and long-term gains stack on top. Tax-free income sits on the side plate and never touches the cake.
Start from an example household (hypothetical illustrations, not recommendations):
Both 60, not yet taking Social Security, living on a brokerage account and some IRA withdrawals.
Filing status
Age 65 or older
The cake shows how much of it becomes taxable.
Taxed like IRA withdrawals in the year you convert.
Roth withdrawals, HSA used for medical, VA disability, return of basis.
Flat 4.99% with the retirement income exclusion; assumes anyone under 65 is 62–64.
Gains & qualified dividends
Ordinary income
The side plate
$10,000
Tax-free income never touches the cake.
Estimated federal tax
$380
Effective rate (of AGI)
0.4%
Next $1,000 of ordinary income taxed at
10.0%
Next $1,000 of gains taxed at
0.0%
Room left in current bracket
$21,000
Room left in the 0% gains zone
$43,100
Medicare IRMAA tier (2-year lookback)
Standard · $203/mo
Next tier begins at $274,000 MAGI
Estimates only, using 2026 federal figures. The cake ignores credits, itemized deductions, and the alternative minimum tax. Medicare surcharges are based on your income from two years earlier.
Want to talk through your own cake?
If the layers surprised you, a conversation can help you see which ones matter most for your plan.
Book a conversation with Ben