84% Take Only the RMD Minimum. Here’s When That’s Smart.

Once you reach the required minimum distribution (RMD) age, the IRS sets a minimum amount, the smallest amount you must withdraw from accounts such as a traditional 401(k) or IRA each year. Most retirees see this floor as a target. According to research by JP Morgan Asset Management and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), approximately 84% of retirees who reach RMD age never exceed the RMD minimum.

For some retirees, maintaining a minimum RMD is a deliberate, tax-wise requirement. For others, it’s a quiet reduction in the pension they’ve funded for decades. The real bug isn’t the number itself. It makes this call by default, never checking it against the alternative.

Why do 8 out of 10 retirees never draw more than the minimum?

A minimum distribution required this is the smallest amount the IRS requires you to withdraw 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 JP Morgan and EBRI study tracked 31,000 people nearing or already retired between 2013 and 2018, using EBRI account data along with JPMorgan Chase’s household spending records. The findings were concrete: 80% of retirees studied did not withdraw a dollar from their accounts before their first required distribution, and 84% of those who reached RMD age did not withdraw more than that minimum.

Kathryn Roy, co-author of the study and then-chief pension strategist at JP Morgan, told CNBC which probably accounts for this: “They are so concerned longevity risk that they are willing to sacrifice their way of life.’ That’s the tension. The instinct that built your nest (leave it alone, let it join) doesn’t have a switch when you retire.

Skip minimums and IRS notices. Miss RMD and the penalty is 25% of the amount you should have withdrawndropping to 10% if you fix it within two years. So there is real pressure to remove at least that floor. It remains an open question whether this floor is the correct number or just the simplest.

Retirement costs do not move in a straight line

JP Morgan’s 2026 Guide to Retirementreleased last February, confirms what the RMD-minimum habit usually ignores: spending is not uniform and unpredictable from year to year. Six in 10 new retirees experience spending volatility during the first three years of retirement, and more than half of retirees between the ages of 75 and 80 still see it play out year after year.

This volatility cuts both ways. Some years require more than the floor requires. The default value, which is never set, does not consider either direction. If you lack a retirement spending plan and your only cost-cutting rule is “whatever the IRS requires,” you’re letting the tax formula make a lifestyle decision it was never designed to make.

Two reasons retirees stop at the bottom, and only one sticks

Manage your tax team. Keeping your withdrawals low to avoid a jump in your tax bracket is a legitimate and valid strategy, especially if you expect your heirs to be in a lower bracket than you. Under current rules, most heirs who are not spouses 10 years to withdraw an inherited retirement accountwhich gives them an opportunity to spread the tax hit. If this is your situation, the floor can be a really reasonable number.

Without ever checking the alternative. This is the one that costs people. Agreeing to a minimum because it’s the default, not because someone modeled it would mean a higher withdrawal for your actual costs, is a whole other issue. It’s a lack of strategy.

In 2026, seniority deductions and the QCD limit increased

Two changes make this a good year to revise your number.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added increased deduction for taxpayers 65 and older should $6,000 for individual files or $12,000 for married couples if both qualify. It will only be available through 2028 and is phased out starting at $75,000 of modified adjusted gross income for separate filings and $150,000 for joint filings. If you’re sitting on income you could get now without a big tax expense, this deduction adds a real reason to consider it before the window closes.

From the side of gifts, 2026 qualified charitable distribution the border grew to $111,000 per person, up from $108,000 in 2025. If charitable giving is already part of your plan, the QCD should be added up against your default before taking RMDs as cash.

Preserve wealth or underdevelop your own pension? JP Morgan calls it both ways

JP Morgan’s own retirement strategists view retirement spending as a choice between several different approaches, and two of them directly reflect the tension at the heart of this article:

Save the director. You only spend your investment earnings and leave the rest intact, usually because you have a bequest goal or plan to self-fund long-term care later. If this describes you, the minimum RMD is probably not a fluke. This is a strategy.

Spend the principal amount. You take money from both income and principal to cover your actual spending needs, often combined with a withdrawal approach that adjusts as your situation changes. If this sounds more like you, but your withdrawals are still sitting on the floor, there’s probably a real gap between what you’re drawing and what you could sustainably spend.

A quick way to find out which camp you’re in:

• Do you have other accounts, such as a brokerage account, HSA, or Roth, that you could draw money from instead of a traditional IRA or 401(k)?
• Did you choose to leave the money to the heirs, or is it the default?
• Are there things you want to do in your 60s or 70s that you keep insisting on later?

If you answered yes to the first two and no to the third, maintaining principal is probably the right challenge for you, and the floor may already be serving that purpose. If your answers point in the other direction, you most likely belong to the second group without even choosing it.

Check your number before agreeing to the floor

Neither drawing more nor drawing less is automatically correct. Failure is choosing a number without checking the alternative with your own plan.

This is where the planning tool makes money. The Boldin Planner allows you to simulate different withdrawal scenarios in My Plan > Cash Flows with the tax impact visible in Analysis > Taxes so you can see how your projected tax bill changes based on how much you withdraw and when.

Add your Social Security timing and expected RMD schedule, then check if a Roth conversion in a lower-income year changes the math using Roth Conversion Explorer model it directly. From there you can weigh the full output sequence vs. sticking to the floor and seeing the difference in dollars, not guesswork.

Whichever camp you’re in, the plan should be the reason you choose this number. And not vice versa.

Frequently asked questions about minimum RMDs