84% of Retirees Take Only the RMD Minimum. Here’s When That’s Smart.
Once you hit the required minimum distribution (RMD) age, the IRS sets a floor, the smallest amount you’re required to withdraw from accounts like a traditional 401(k) or IRA each year. Most retirees treat that floor as the target. Roughly 84% of retirees who’ve reached RMD age never go past the RMD minimum, according to research from J.P. Morgan Asset Management and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
For some retirees, sticking to the RMD minimum is a deliberate, tax-smart call. For others, it’s quietly shrinking a retirement they spent decades funding. The real mistake isn’t the number itself. It’s making that call by default, without ever testing it against the alternative.
Why Do 8 in 10 Retirees Never Draw More Than the Minimum?
A required minimum distribution is the smallest amount the IRS requires you to pull from tax-deferred retirement accounts each year, starting at RMD age. SECURE 2.0 pushed that age to 73 today, with a further increase to 75 by 2033.
The J.P. Morgan and EBRI research tracked 31,000 people approaching or already in retirement between 2013 and 2018, using EBRI account data alongside JPMorgan Chase household spending records. The findings were specific: 80% of retirees studied hadn’t pulled a dollar from their accounts before their first required distribution, and 84% of those who’d reached RMD age drew no more than that floor.
Katherine Roy, the study’s co-author and J.P. Morgan’s chief retirement strategist at the time, told CNBC what’s likely driving it: “They’re so concerned about longevity risk that they are willing to sacrifice their lifestyle.” That’s the tension. The instinct that built your nest egg (leave it alone, let it compound) doesn’t have an off switch for when you retire.
Skip the minimum and the IRS notices. Miss an RMD and the penalty runs 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn, dropping to 10% if you correct it within two years. So there’s real pressure to withdraw at least that floor. The open question is whether that floor is also the right number, or just the easiest one.
Retirement Spending Doesn’t Move in a Straight Line
J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Guide to Retirement, released this past February, backs up something the RMD-minimum habit tends to ignore: spending isn’t flat, and it isn’t predictable year to year. Six in 10 new retirees experience spending volatility in the first three years of retirement, and more than half of retirees aged 75 to 80 still see it show up year to year.
That volatility cuts both ways. Some years call for more than the floor requires. A default that never adjusts doesn’t account for either direction. If you lack a retirement spending plan and your only spend-down rule is “whatever the IRS requires,” you’re letting a tax formula make a lifestyle decision it was never built to make.
Two Reasons Retirees Stop at the Minimum, and Only One Holds Up
Managing your tax bracket. Keeping withdrawals low to avoid a jump in tax bracket is a legitimate, defensible strategy, especially if you expect your heirs to land in a lower bracket than you. Under current rules, most non-spouse heirs have 10 years to draw down an inherited retirement account, which gives them room to spread out the tax hit. If that’s your situation, the floor might genuinely be the smart number.
Never checking the alternative. This is the one that costs people. Settling for the floor because it’s the default, not because anyone modeled what a higher withdrawal would mean for your actual spending, is a different problem entirely. It’s the absence of a strategy.
The Senior Deduction and the QCD Limit Both Got Bigger for 2026
Two changes make this year a good one to revisit your number.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added an enhanced deduction for taxpayers 65 and older worth $6,000 for single filers or $12,000 for married couples if both qualify. It’s only available through 2028, and it phases out starting at $75,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers. If you’re sitting on income you could draw now without much tax cost, this deduction adds a real reason to consider it before the window closes.
On the giving side, the 2026 qualified charitable distribution limit rose to $111,000 per person, up from $108,000 in 2025. If charitable giving is already part of your plan, a QCD is worth stacking against your default before you take the RMD as cash.
Preserving Wealth or Underspending Your Own Retirement? J.P. Morgan Names Both Paths
J.P. Morgan’s own retirement strategists frame retirement spending as a choice between a few distinct approaches, and two of them map directly onto the tension at the center of this article:
Preserve principal. You spend only your investment returns and leave the balance intact, usually because you have a bequest goal or you’re planning to self-fund long-term care later. If this describes you, the RMD minimum is probably not an accident. It’s the strategy.
Spend principal. You draw from both returns and principal to cover your actual spending needs, often paired with a withdrawal approach that adjusts as your situation changes. If that sounds more like you, but your withdrawals still settle at the floor, there’s likely a real distance between what you draw and what you could sustainably spend.
A quick way to tell which camp you’re in:
- Do you have other accounts, such as a brokerage account, an HSA, or a Roth, that you could draw from instead of your traditional IRA or 401(k)?
- Is leaving money to heirs something you’ve decided on, or just what happens by default?
- Are there things you want to do in your 60s or 70s that you keep pushing to later?
If you answered yes to the first two and no to the third, preserving principal is probably the right call for you, and the floor may already be serving that goal. If your answers point the other way, you’re likely in the second group without having chosen it.
Pressure-Test Your Number Before You Settle for the Floor
Neither drawing more nor drawing less is automatically right. The failure is picking a number without ever testing the alternative against your own plan.
This is where a planning tool earns its keep. The Boldin Planner lets you model different withdrawal scenarios in My Plan > Money Flows, with tax impact visible under Insights > Taxes, so you can see how your projected tax bill shifts depending on how much you draw and when.
Add your Social Security timing and expected RMD schedule, then check whether a Roth conversion in a lower-income year changes the math, using the Roth Conversion Explorer to model it directly. From there, you can weigh a full withdrawal sequence against sticking with the floor and see the difference in dollars, not guesses.
Whichever camp you’re in, the plan should be the reason you’re choosing that number. Not the other way around.
FAQs About the RMD Minimum
Taking only the RMD minimum keeps you compliant with IRS rules and can preserve more of your balance for heirs or long-term care needs. It can also mean underspending money you have full permission to use, particularly if your spending needs are higher than the minimum accounts for.
A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, sent directly from your IRA to a qualified charity counts toward your RMD for the year, up to the annual QCD limit of $111,000 per person in 2026. The distribution doesn’t count as taxable income, unlike an RMD taken as cash.
The RMD age is scheduled to rise again. SECURE 2.0 set today’s RMD age at 73, with an increase to 75 for individuals born in 1960 or later, taking effect in 2033.
The IRS charges an excise tax of 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn but didn’t. That penalty generally drops to 10% if you correct the missed distribution within two years.
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