The Retirement Eddy: How I Escaped the RMD Current by Thinking Like a Physicist

Part I: The Smooth Path to the Waterfall – My Struggle with Laminar Planning

A. Introduction: The Planner’s Paradox

For the first decade of my career as a financial planner, I built what I believed were perfect retirement plans.

They were elegant, orderly, and logical.

I’d sit with clients—engineers, teachers, small business owners—and map out their futures on spreadsheets that flowed with mathematical precision.

We followed every rule, maximized every contribution, and watched their nest eggs grow in tax-deferred accounts like traditional IRAs and 401(k)s.

Their financial journeys looked like a perfectly smooth, straight river, what engineers call “laminar flow,” heading toward a serene horizon.

But there was a fatal flaw in this elegant design, a flaw I was too green to see.

This smooth river of assets was flowing directly toward a tax waterfall.

I watched, with a growing sense of professional horror, as my first generation of clients—people who had done everything right—crashed into their 70s.

The very accounts we had so diligently nurtured became the source of immense financial pressure.

The government’s mandatory withdrawal rules, known as Required Minimum Distributions or RMDs, kicked in, forcing them to take out far more money than they needed to live on.

This triggered a cascade of consequences: shocking tax bills, surprise Medicare premium hikes, and a loss of control over the wealth they had spent a lifetime building.¹

Their meticulously planned income streams had become a source of anxiety, and their “perfect” plans were failing them.

It was my professional crisis of conscience, the moment I realized that the conventional wisdom I was taught was not just incomplete; for my most successful clients, it was dangerously wrong.

B. A Cautionary Tale: The Tax Flooding of the Millers

The story that haunts me most is that of the Millers.

David was a retired aerospace engineer, and his wife, Sarah, had been a high school librarian.

They were the ideal clients: diligent, prudent, and trusting.

They had amassed a healthy $2.5 million in their combined traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, and together with David’s modest pension and their Social Security benefits, they were set for a comfortable retirement.

Their plan was a textbook example of the “laminar” approach.

We would let their tax-deferred accounts grow untouched for as long as possible, maximizing the power of compounding.

They would live on their pension and Social Security, only starting to draw from their IRAs when the government forced their hand.³

For years, the plan worked beautifully.

Their account balances swelled, and they felt secure.

The problem with laminar flow, however, is that it can build immense, unseen pressure.

Year after year, their IRA balances grew, even after they began taking RMDs at age 73.

The RMD calculation itself, which divides the previous year-end account balance by a life expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, is designed to take a larger percentage of the portfolio each year.⁵

The pressure was building.

The waterfall event occurred when David turned 75.

By then, their IRA balance had grown to over $3.2 million.

Based on the IRS distribution period of 24.6 for a 75-year-old, their RMD for that year was a staggering $130,000.³

This single distribution, when added to their pension and Social Security, was a financial bombshell.

It violently pushed their total income from the 24% federal tax bracket squarely into the 32% bracket.⁵

But the damage didn’t stop there.

The ripple effects were devastating:

• Medicare Premium Surcharges: Their sharply higher Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) triggered the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). Their monthly premiums for Medicare Part B and Part D skyrocketed, costing them thousands of extra dollars a year for the exact same coverage.¹
• Social Security Taxation: The portion of their Social Security benefits subject to federal income tax jumped from 50% to the maximum 85%. More of their guaranteed income was now being lost to taxes.¹

The Millers were forced to withdraw over $100,000 more than they needed for their living expenses, only to watch nearly a third of it get vaporized by taxes and surcharges.

Their wealth was being eroded not by bad investments or poor saving habits, but by a rigid, compliance-based plan that ignored the physics of the tax code.

Their story became my obsession.

There had to be a better Way.

C. The Unyielding Current: Understanding the Rules of the River

To find a solution, I first had to fully accept the problem.

The RMD and RRIF systems are not suggestions; they are powerful, unyielding currents in the financial river.

Ignoring them is not an option.

The government provides a significant benefit by allowing assets to grow tax-deferred for decades; these rules are its mechanism for finally collecting that deferred tax revenue.⁶

Understanding their mechanics is the first step toward navigating them.

In the United States, the system is governed by Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs):

• Applicable Accounts: RMDs apply to tax-deferred accounts, including traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs, as well as employer-sponsored plans like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457(b)s.⁶ Roth IRAs, funded with after-tax dollars, are a critical exception and have no RMDs for the original owner.¹²
• Timing: The SECURE Act and its successor, SECURE 2.0, have adjusted the starting age. For individuals born between 1951 and 1959, RMDs begin at age 73. For those born in 1960 or later, the age is pushed to 75.⁵ You can delay your very first RMD until April 1 of the year
  after you reach the required age. However, this is often a tax trap, as it forces you to take two RMDs in a single calendar year (the delayed first one and the standard second one), which can significantly inflate your taxable income.⁸
• Calculation: The annual RMD is calculated by taking the account balance from December 31 of the prior year and dividing it by a “distribution period” factor from the IRS’s Uniform Lifetime Table.⁵ This factor decreases each year, meaning the percentage of your account you must withdraw increases as you age.⁷
• Penalties: The penalty for failing to take the correct RMD is severe: a 25% excise tax on the amount that was not withdrawn. This can be reduced to 10% if the error is corrected in a timely manner, but it remains one of the steepest penalties in the tax code.¹⁰

In Canada, the equivalent system involves Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs):

• The Conversion: Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) must be converted into a RRIF (or used to purchase an annuity) by the end of the year the owner turns 71.¹⁷
• Timing: Minimum withdrawals are mandatory starting in the calendar year after the RRIF is established.¹⁸
• Calculation: The minimum withdrawal is calculated by multiplying the fair market value of the RRIF on January 1 by a prescribed percentage factor that increases with age.¹⁷ Similar to U.S. rules, you can elect to use a younger spouse’s age for the calculation, which results in a lower minimum withdrawal.¹⁸
• Taxation: While there is no withholding tax on the minimum RRIF withdrawal, any amount taken above the minimum is subject to immediate withholding tax.¹⁷ All RRIF withdrawals are added to your taxable income for the year, which can lead to a clawback of Old Age Security (OAS) benefits if your income exceeds certain thresholds.¹⁷

The inherent conflict in these systems became clear to me.

They are designed to force an escalating stream of taxable income upon retirees.

For those who saved diligently and invested wisely, this forced income stream inevitably collides with their other income sources, creating a tax bracket crunch precisely when they are most vulnerable.

A strategy based on simple, passive compliance is not a strategy at all; it is an acceptance of defeat.

The physics of the system demanded a more sophisticated, proactive approach.

Part II: The Epiphany – Embracing Financial Fluid Dynamics

A. From Riverbank to Whiteboard: A New Metaphor is Born

The breakthrough didn’t come to me in a boardroom or staring at a stock ticker.

It came on a crisp autumn afternoon, standing on a bridge overlooking a local river.

I was frustrated, poring over the Millers’ case, feeling like a failure.

As I watched the water below, I was struck by its complexity.

The main current was strong and swift, but it wasn’t the whole story.

Along the banks, the water swirled in eddies.

In calmer sections, it pooled and seemed to flow backward.

It wasn’t a single, uniform flow; it was a dynamic, interacting system.

That was the “aha!” moment.

I realized that for years, we financial planners had been trying to force the turbulent, chaotic reality of a client’s financial life into a neat, predictable, laminar model.

We were building straight, sterile canals when we should have been studying the physics of a real river.

The goal shouldn’t be to fight the turbulence of the markets or the unpredictable currents of life.

The goal should be to understand the principles of fluid dynamics and use them to our clients’ advantage.

B. The Physics of Finance: Laminar vs. Turbulent Flow

This new metaphor became the foundation of my work.

I went back to my college physics textbooks and saw the parallels everywhere.²²

Laminar Flow – The Old Paradigm: In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by smooth, orderly layers of fluid sliding past each other with little to no mixing.

It’s predictable and easy to model.²³

This was the perfect analogy for traditional retirement planning: the “4% rule,” fixed-dollar withdrawal strategies, and my old compliance-only RMD plans.

These models assume a straight, predictable path.

They are simple to calculate but are dangerously rigid and unresponsive to real-world conditions.

They build up immense tax pressure against the “pipe walls” of the tax code until something bursts.

Turbulent Flow – The New Reality: Turbulent flow is the opposite.

It’s chaotic, irregular, and characterized by eddies and swirls that cause efficient mixing.²²

This is the reality of retirement.

It includes market volatility, inflation shocks, unexpected health crises, and evolving life goals.

But turbulence isn’t just a negative; it’s also where the energy for growth and heat transfer exists.

A turbulent flow is highly effective at distributing pressure and energy throughout a system, preventing dangerous buildups in any one spot.

The fundamental flaw in conventional retirement income planning is treating a turbulent, dynamic system as if it were laminar.

A retiree’s financial life is a confluence of multiple flows: tax-deferred accounts (like IRAs/RRIFs), tax-free accounts (like Roths/TFSAs), taxable brokerage accounts, Social Security, and pensions.²⁵

The environment itself is turbulent, with fluctuating market returns and changing tax laws.

A “laminar” strategy—like “only touch your IRA when the RMD rules start”—ignores this reality.

It allows the pressure in one channel to build to a critical, damaging level.

A “turbulent” or dynamic approach, however, acknowledges that the key to long-term stability is not rigidity, but controlled mixing and pressure release across all channels.

C. Introducing Dynamic Distribution Modeling (DDM)

From this epiphany, I developed a new framework: Dynamic Distribution Modeling (DDM).

It is a holistic, multi-year approach to managing retirement income that treats a client’s finances as a complex fluid system.

The primary objective of DDM is not simply to withdraw money, but to proactively manage the pressure within the entire system.

We do this by creating controlled “eddies”—strategic financial maneuvers—that release tax pressure from one area (like a traditional IRA) and redirect that financial energy to another (like a tax-free Roth IRA or a taxable brokerage account).

This process optimizes the entire system for a smooth, sustainable, and tax-efficient flow of after-tax income throughout a long retirement.

It transforms the client from a passive passenger on a dangerous river to the active captain of their own vessel, using the currents and eddies to their advantage.²⁷

Part III: The Mechanics of Dynamic Distribution Modeling

DDM is built on three core pillars that work in concert to manage the flow of retirement assets.

Each pillar uses a principle from fluid dynamics to solve a specific problem created by rigid, “laminar” planning.

A. Pillar 1: The “Guardrail” Dam – Managing Tax Pressure

The first and most critical pillar addresses the primary danger: uncontrolled tax-bracket creep.

Instead of letting income spike in later years due to massive RMDs, we build a “dam” around a target tax bracket.

This concept, often called a “guardrail” approach, becomes a proactive tool for managing tax pressure over the entire retirement horizon.²⁷

The mechanics are straightforward but require forward-looking planning.

First, we work with the client to establish a target tax bracket they are comfortable with for the long term—for many, this is the 22% or 24% federal bracket in the U.S. Then, we use the years before RMDs begin, often called the “retirement income valley,” to our advantage.¹¹

During this period, when income is typically lower, we intentionally “fill up” the lower tax brackets each year.

This is our proactive pressure release.

We do this by systematically converting funds from high-pressure traditional IRAs to no-pressure Roth IRAs, or by taking strategic withdrawals from IRAs to cover living expenses instead of drawing from other sources.⁵

By paying taxes at today’s known, and likely lower, marginal rates, we reduce the IRA balance that will be subject to future RMD calculations.

We are essentially letting a controlled amount of water over the dam each year to prevent the reservoir from overflowing later.

When the client reaches RMD age, the mandatory withdrawals are smaller and less likely to breach the guardrails of a higher tax bracket.

B. Pillar 2: The “Reservoir” System – The Multi-Bucket Strategy

The second pillar organizes assets into a system of interconnected reservoirs, each designed with different flow characteristics to meet specific needs.

This “bucket” strategy provides both stability and growth, insulating the client’s essential income from market turbulence.³⁰

• Bucket 1 (The Short-Term / “Laminar” Reservoir): This bucket holds 1 to 3 years of anticipated living expenses in highly stable, liquid assets like cash, high-yield savings accounts, or short-term bond funds. This is the low-velocity, predictable part of the system. Its sole purpose is to provide a reliable “paycheck” and the peace of mind that comes from knowing you won’t be forced to sell growth assets in a down market.³⁰
• Bucket 2 (The Mid-Term / “Transitional Flow” Reservoir): This bucket is designed to cover expenses for the next 3 to 10 years. It is invested more conservatively than the long-term bucket but with more growth potential than cash. Assets here might include high-quality intermediate-term bonds and stable, income-producing equities. The primary job of this reservoir is to reliably refill Bucket 1.³⁰
• Bucket 3 (The Long-Term / “Turbulent” Reservoir): This is where the rest of the portfolio resides, invested for long-term growth in a diversified mix of global equities. This reservoir is designed to harness market turbulence to generate the returns needed to fund the entire retirement. During years of strong market performance, we siphon off gains from this bucket to methodically replenish Bucket 2, ensuring the entire system remains robust.³⁰

C. Pillar 3: The “Confluence” Point – Creating Tax-Efficient Eddies

The third pillar is the art of DDM: actively managing the confluence where different income streams and account types meet.

By creating strategic “eddies,” we can redirect financial flows to optimize the tax outcome for any given year.

These are not just isolated tactics; they are coordinated levers used to control the pressure and flow of the entire system.

The three most powerful eddies in the DDM framework are:

1. Roth Conversions: This is the ultimate pressure-release valve. We strategically move money from the high-pressure, tax-deferred channel (Traditional IRA/401k) to the zero-pressure, tax-free channel (Roth IRA).⁷ As discussed under Pillar 1, these are best executed during the low-income “retirement valley” years. The critical rule to remember is that once you are subject to RMDs, you must satisfy your RMD for the year
   before you can convert any additional funds.³³ This sequencing requirement makes multi-year planning absolutely essential. You cannot use the conversion itself to satisfy the RMD.
2. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs): For charitably inclined individuals, the QCD is a perfect eddy. In the U.S., once you reach age 70.5, you can direct up to $108,000 (for 2025, indexed for inflation) from your IRA directly to a qualified charity.³⁵ This distribution counts toward your RMD for the year, but the amount is excluded from your AGI.⁵ Think of it as a spillway: the required water (RMD) is released from the IRA reservoir, but it’s diverted before it can raise the water level (AGI) in your personal tax reservoir, protecting you from the “flooding” of higher Medicare premiums and Social Security taxes.³⁷
3. Proportional Withdrawals: The old, laminar advice was to follow a rigid sequence: drain taxable accounts first, then tax-deferred, then tax-free. DDM replaces this with a dynamic, proportional approach.³⁰ In any given year, we might pull long-term capital gains from a taxable account, take a partial distribution from the IRA, and supplement with tax-free cash from a Roth account. This blending allows us to precisely engineer the client’s taxable income, keeping it just below the threshold of their target tax bracket.

The innovation of DDM is not the invention of these tools, but their integration into a single, dynamic system governed by the principles of fluid dynamics.

They are no longer a checklist of disparate tactics but coordinated instruments that give the retiree true control over their financial future.

Part IV: The Proof – The Wilsons’ Success Story

A. From Turbulent to Tranquil: A New Plan for the Wilsons

A few years after my frustrating experience with the Millers, a new couple, the Wilsons, walked into my office.

Their situation was eerily similar: both were 65, recently retired, and had diligently saved $2.5 million in their IRAs.

They were worried about the “tax bomb” they’d heard about from friends.

This was my chance to apply the Dynamic Distribution Modeling framework from the very beginning.

Our first meeting wasn’t about spreadsheets or projections.

It was a holistic discovery session focused on their vision for retirement.³⁹

They wanted to travel extensively for the first 10 years, support their local arts community with an annual donation, and ensure their two children would have a tax-efficient inheritance.

These goals, not just account balances, became the blueprint for their DDM plan.

B. The DDM in Action: A Multi-Year Walkthrough

We put the DDM plan into motion immediately upon their retirement at age 65.

• Ages 65-69 (The “Retirement Valley” Pressure Release): The Wilsons lived on a combination of their Social Security benefits and withdrawals from their taxable brokerage account. Each year, we executed a strategic Roth conversion, moving just enough from their traditional IRA to their new Roth IRA to fill up the 22% and 24% federal tax brackets but not exceed them.⁷ We were proactively bleeding pressure from the IRA “pipe” while tax rates were predictable and relatively low.
• Age 70 (Adapting to Market Turbulence): The stock market experienced a sharp 15% correction. Following the DDM playbook, we immediately halted the Roth conversion for that year to avoid converting assets at depressed values. For their living expenses, they drew entirely from their pre-funded “Laminar Reservoir” (Bucket 1), which held two years’ worth of expenses in a high-yield savings account. They didn’t have to sell a single stock or bond at a loss.²⁷ The system was adapting to the external turbulence exactly as designed.
• Age 72 (Opening the Charitable Spillway): Now over age 70.5, the Wilsons began using Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) for their annual $25,000 gift to the local symphony. The money went directly from their IRA to the charity, satisfying a future portion of their RMD without ever appearing on their tax return as income.⁵
• Age 73 (The First, Tamed RMD): The year of their first RMD arrived. But the landscape looked completely different from the Millers’ situation. Thanks to years of strategic Roth conversions, their traditional IRA balance was now approximately $1.8 million, not the $3 million+ it might have been. Their RMD was smaller and more manageable. After subtracting their $25,000 QCD, the remaining taxable portion of their RMD, combined with their Social Security, kept them comfortably within the 24% tax bracket. There was no tax bomb. The main current was now a gentle, predictable stream, not a raging torrent, because we had spent years strategically and patiently managing its pressure.

C. The DDM Advantage – Millers vs. Wilsons at Age 75

The true power of Dynamic Distribution Modeling is best illustrated with a direct, side-by-side comparison.

Both couples started at age 65 with identical financial profiles.

By age 75, their outcomes were worlds apart.

Metric	The Millers (Standard “Laminar” Plan)	The Wilsons (Dynamic Distribution Modeling)	The DDM Advantage
Starting IRA Balance (Age 65)	$2,500,000	$2,500,000	N/A
IRA Balance at Age 75	~$3,200,000	~$1,800,000	-$1,400,000 (Transferred to Roth)
Roth IRA Balance at Age 75	$0	~$1,600,000	+$1,600,000 (Tax-Free Growth)
Pension + Soc. Security	$70,000	$70,000	$0
RMD for Year (at Age 75)	$125,490 (based on $3.2M / 25.5 factor)	$70,588 (based on $1.8M / 25.5 factor)	-$54,902 in forced taxable income
Total Taxable Income	$195,490	$140,588 (Reduced by QCDs)	-$54,902
Federal Tax Bracket	32%	24%	Lower Bracket & Significant Tax Savings
Est. Federal Tax	~$38,500	~$22,500	~$16,000 Saved (Annually)
Triggered Medicare Surcharge?	Yes (High)	No	Avoided Costly Surcharge
Financial Flexibility	Low (Forced withdrawals, high taxes)	High (Access to tax-free Roth funds)	Control, Flexibility, Peace of Mind

Note: Table values are illustrative, based on assumed growth rates and 2025 tax brackets/RMD factors.

RMD for age 75 is based on the prior year’s balance at age 74, using the distribution period of 25.5 from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table.⁵

The numbers speak for themselves.

The Wilsons paid less in tax, avoided costly Medicare surcharges, and, most importantly, retained control.

They now have a massive, tax-free Roth reservoir they can tap for emergencies or opportunities without triggering a new tax bill, a luxury the Millers simply do not have.

Conclusion: Become the Master of Your Financial Flow

My journey from a by-the-book planner to a student of financial fluid dynamics has taught me one crucial lesson: the standard approach to retirement income is broken.

It treats retirees as passive observers, subject to the unforgiving currents of the tax code.

It creates a system where diligence and success are punished with higher taxes and a loss of control.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

By embracing a holistic, dynamic mindset—by thinking like a physicist—you can transform your relationship with your retirement assets.

You can move from being a passive victim of the RMD current to being the active master of your own financial flow.

Dynamic Distribution Modeling is more than a set of tactics; it’s a new way of thinking.

It’s about understanding that your financial life is an interconnected system of pressures and flows.

It’s about using strategic, controlled turbulence to maintain long-term stability.

It requires courage to pay taxes now through Roth conversions to secure a tax-free future.

It requires discipline to build and maintain a bucket strategy.

And it requires foresight to coordinate all the moving parts of your financial life into a single, resilient plan.

But the reward is the ultimate goal of financial planning: a retirement of confidence, purpose, and peace, where you, not the tax code, are in control.

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