Retirement
Retirement Planning After Medicare
At 65 the health insurance question mostly settles and the tax planning question gets sharper. IRMAA replaces the ACA cliff as your income guardrail, and RMDs sit on the horizon waiting to push your income up whether you want it or not.
This piece maps the milestones of this phase and how to use the years before RMDs begin.
What the article covers
- The three milestones that define the post-65 phase
- IRMAA as the new income guardrail
- Social Security timing after 65
- Withdrawal order once Medicare has started
- The Roth conversion process, step by step
- What to do when the IRA is too large to convert efficiently
- The key planning numbers for 2026
Key takeaways
- 1The window between 65 and your RMD start date is the last easy chance to reshape future taxable income.
- 2IRMAA brackets are cliffs, not ramps. A few dollars of extra income can raise Medicare premiums for a full year.
- 3A very large pre-tax IRA is a good problem, but it needs a multi-year plan rather than one big conversion.
Who this is for: Retirees on Medicare planning around IRMAA, Roth conversions, and RMDs.
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