Get the Most From These 3 Retirement Accounts (By Paying Attention to Taxes) 

Available for Interviews: Lauren Oschman

Lauren Oschman, CFP® is a certified financial planner specializing in financial strategies, tax planning, and is an expert in helping physicians manage their finances.

What Lauren Oschman can say in an interview on
How to Get the Most From Retirement Accounts
:

    • Many investors rely heavily on their 401k for their retirement savings, but there are some significant drawbacks to that strategy when it comes to getting the most value out of your money. While investors are conditioned to think about diversifying from an investment perspective, they often don’t think about diversifying from a tax perspective.

    • Think about your investments in three main “buckets” from a tax perspective:
        1. 401k accounts. These come with future income tax liability. Meaning if you amass $1 million in your 401k for retirement, you can assume 30% of that (give or take depending on future tax rates) is coming off the top to pay taxes. So the spending off of $1 million saved in your 401k is really more like $700k. 
        2. Brokerage accounts. For these you pay taxes on your profits, which are usually lower than income tax rates. Current rates are between 15-20% if you have held the investment for at least one year. If you have $1 million in a brokerage account in retirement, assume 60% of that is gains. If it’s all taxes at long-term rates, that’s around $120k off the top for taxes and you can spend the remaining $880k.
        3. Roth accounts. These are tax-free if withdrawn in retirement! If you had that same $1 million in a Roth IRA, you would get to spend that full $1 million in retirement! 
      • So which is the “best”? It actually depends on tax rates now versus later. You save significant taxes on the front end of your 401k accounts which provides some advantage there. 
      • Based on my experience, I would submit it’s generally best to diversify your retirement investing across the 3 buckets so that you have various income streams to pull from, creating a “retirement paycheck” that allows you to withdraw the most value based on your tax rate environment when you are retired. 

 

Interview: Lauren Oschman

Lauren Oschman, CFP® is a financial advisor for some of the nation’s highest caliber physicians. She holds an economics degree from Vanderbilt University and completed her financial training at Emerson University. Along with these prestigious degrees, Oschman has over a decade of expertise in financial matters for high net worth individuals. 

Oschman delivers financial education programs to medical residents & fellows nationwide (Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Rush, OrthoCarolina and many others), has built a $1 million revenue financial planning business, and co-founded Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, and is an expert in helping physicians attain their financial goals—and has a niche passion for working with high-caliber female surgeons, and volunteers as a CFP® WIN (Women’s Initiative) Advocate to raise awareness about the profession for young women.

Her decade-long experience as an accomplished financial advisor and executive has led to her being a sought-after speaker for financial workshops throughout Alabama, Georgia—and Tennessee, where she has happily resided with her husband and two young children.

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