Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

For many Christian households, the hardest part of retirement income is not a market headline. It is the quiet shift from "I choose what I take" to "the tax code also has a say."

That shift has a name: the required minimum distribution, or RMD.

An RMD is not a penalty for saving. It is a floor on how slowly certain tax-deferred balances can stay inside the account once you reach the age the law sets. Understanding the floor helps you steward both the nest egg and the calendar without scramble.

This article is educational. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Rules change. Your accounts, birth year, and plan documents matter. Confirm details with your CPA, your plan administrator, and your custodian before you act.

Biblical stewardship asks honest questions about what God has entrusted and how it is used over time. Traditional IRAs and many pre-tax workplace plans received tax deferral along the way. The RMD rules are one way Congress eventually brings those dollars into taxable income (or into other allowed paths, such as a properly executed qualified charitable distribution when the rules fit).

So an RMD is both a tax mechanic and a paycheck mechanic. It can become part of how you fund living expenses, giving, and reserves. Naming it early reduces year-end fog.

If you want a broader faith-centered foundation before the details, see our Christian Retirement Planning 101 guide. The rest of this post stays on RMD literacy.

Under current law (SECURE and SECURE 2.0 changes), the age when lifetime RMDs begin from traditional IRAs and many workplace plans depends on birth year. In plain educational terms many households use today: age 73 is common for owners born in the 1951–1959 window; owners born in 1960 or later generally look toward age 75; older cohorts followed earlier ages under prior law. Those are orientation landmarks only. Confirm the exact rule for your birth date in IRS Publication 590-B and with your tax professional. Do not assume one universal age for every reader.

Roth IRAs, and designated Roth accounts in a 401(k) or 403(b) while the original owner is alive, are generally not subject to lifetime RMDs for that owner. This post focuses on traditional balances the tax code wants to see distributed over time.

Inherited accounts follow different rules. Do not assume an owner RMD timeline applies to a beneficiary account. When inheritance is involved, get account-type specific guidance.

The still-working exception can delay RMDs from the plan of a current employer in some cases, under plan documents and IRS rules. It is generally not an IRA rule. Do not assume your IRA receives the same treatment as a workplace plan at your current job.

Write this down: birth year sets your RMD starting age under current law (often 73 for many owners, later for later birth years — check IRS Publication 590-B); Roth owner lifetime RMDs are a different story; inherited and still-working situations need their own map.

After the first RMD year, annual RMDs are generally due by December 31.

For the first RMD year, IRA rules often allow a required beginning date of April 1 of the year after you reach the RMD age. That option can sound like breathing room. It can also put two required distributions into the same calendar tax year if you delay the first one and still owe the next year's RMD by December 31 of that same year.

I am describing calendar mechanics. I am not saying April 1 usually saves tax. I am not saying always take by December 31. I am saying households should name the stack on purpose with a tax professional before year-end, not discover it in April.

The principle for everyone is the same: deadlines are part of stewardship.

Write this down: December 31 is the usual annual beat; the first-year April 1 option can create a two-in-one-year stack; decide with eyes open.

In plain English for many owners: take the prior December 31 account balance, and divide by an IRS life-expectancy factor from the Uniform Lifetime Table for your age.

Use a different table only when your facts fit (for example, when a spouse is the sole beneficiary and is more than ten years younger). Confirm the table that fits your household in IRS Publication 590-B and with your custodian.

Illustrative only: not your number, not advice. If a prior year-end balance were $100,000 and a Uniform Lifetime Table factor were 26.5, then $100,000 ÷ 26.5 is about $3,774. That is a teaching example. Do not treat it as your RMD.

Your custodian often calculates and may offer to distribute. You still own the deadline. Multiple IRAs generally allow aggregation of the calculated amounts, with the total taken from one or more IRAs. Employer plans are different. They generally require the RMD from each plan. You cannot always pool the way IRAs allow.

An RMD is a minimum, not a maximum. Some households need more than the minimum for living expenses. Some need less for spending but still must take (or complete an allowed alternative path) to satisfy the rule.

Thinking of the RMD as one possible paycheck source helps you ask better questions:

• Does this withdrawal fund spending, taxes, giving, or reserves?
• Are we coordinating Social Security, pensions, taxable accounts, and RMDs so cash flow is calm?
• Have we named which accounts satisfy which requirements?

Those questions belong in a planning conversation. They are not answered by a blog post. If longevity anxiety is part of the fog, our piece Will I Outlive My Money? frames the fear without pretending a guarantee exists.

From age 70½, a qualified charitable distribution (a direct transfer from an IRA to an eligible charity) can, when requirements are met, be excluded from gross income and count toward that year's RMD.

Church, missions, and ministries you already support can sit inside this conversation when the trustee-to-trustee path and charity eligibility are done correctly. Stewardship here is aligning a required withdrawal with generosity when that is the household's calling and the rules fit.

We cover QCD mechanics in plain English. Coordinate with your CPA and custodian before any transfer. Educational only. No promised tax outcome.

1. Waiting for the custodian nudge as your only plan. Notices help. They are not a strategy.
2. Mixing IRA aggregation rules with employer-plan per-plan rules. Different toolkits.
3. Treating the first-year April 1 date as free time with no calendar consequence. Name the possible stack.
4. Ignoring multiple account types until December. Fall is clearer than the last week of the year.
5. Assuming a shortfall is "no big deal." Missed or short RMDs can face an excise tax under current rules (SECURE 2.0 adjusted the rate structure and correction concepts). Stay ahead when you can; if something went wrong, work with a tax professional promptly rather than guessing.

Year-end stewardship checklists pair well with RMD literacy. See End-of-Year Financial Planning for Christians for a broader fall rhythm.

Faithfulness is not panic. Faithfulness is also not pretending the IRS calendar is optional. Wisdom looks at account types, ages, cash flow, giving, and tax filing years together, with calm professionals, before the deadline becomes a scramble.

At Matt25 Capital, I want Christian families to see RMDs as a stewardship checkpoint: when does the nest egg start sending a required paycheck, and how does that paycheck fit the rest of the plan?

You do not have to solve every account tonight. Open statements. Write the year you reach RMD age. Write December 31 next to any first-year April 1 option. Ask which path keeps your household clear-eyed.

If you want a calm first look at how RMDs sit inside a broader retirement paycheck picture, start with the Free Retirement Paycheck Readiness Scorecard. You can also request a Clarity Call through our contact page.

I'm Will Snodgrass, a CFP® professional and fiduciary asset manager with Matt25 Capital, serving Christian households in Houston, The Woodlands, and across the country.