Pro baseball player retires at 35.
Did everything right.
*Maxed out his MLB 401(k)
*Optimized his Solo 401(k) each year
Retired with $3,300,000 in those accounts.
His thought?
“I’ll just let it keep growing and not touch it.”
Sounds smart…until it’s not.
Fast forward to age 60.
That $3,300,000 has grown to $22,600,000.
Then his silent partner steps in, the IRS.
Between 20%-40% of that money belongs to the tax man.
An upcoming tax bill between...
$4.5M to $9.04M
You see, here is what he missed...
After retiring, his income and his tax bracket dropped.
A perfect time to convert (move) this money from his tax-deferred bucket (traditional retirement accounts) to his tax-free bucket (Roth retirement accounts).
Example:
He shifts all $3,300,000 from traditional retirement accounts to Roth accounts over ~ 10 years.
In that time, he pays a blended tax rate of ~ 15%.
He is prepaying his tax bill for a total of $495,000.
The other $2,805,000 now grows tax-free.
So at age 60, he is looking at a balance of roughly $19M.
The difference is that he has cut out his silent partner, the IRS.
In doing so, he saved a few million dollars off his lifetime tax bill.
This is the part most athletes miss.
The window of low income when you retire.
And in that window, you have control.
@The_Money_Buddy Well if normal retirement age is 67 and he gets a modest 6% ROR for the next 32 years he’s looking at over a million at 67.. not including any future contributions into that 401k