If you are 73 or older, the government has a date circled on your IRA. Here is what it is, and who is busy because of it.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 
BOOMERS TRADE
Andrew James reporting. 64, and counting.
Washington wrote a deadline into your IRA. It falls on New Year’s Eve.
Once you reach 73, the tax break on a traditional IRA comes with a schedule. Every year, a set slice has to come out, whether you need the money or not.
Due by Dec. 31.
The yearly required withdrawal from a traditional IRA, for everyone already past their first one.
Somewhere in a kitchen drawer there is a letter from the brokerage. It says the required minimum distribution for this year, and it gives an amount.
Most of us glance at it and put it back. The letter is polite. The rule behind it is not.
Planners call it the RMD, short for required minimum distribution. It is the amount the IRS makes you take out of a traditional IRA each year after 73. The money was never taxed going in. This is how the government finally collects.
Miss it, and the penalty is 25% of what you should have withdrawn. Fix it within two years, and it drops to 10%.
That deadline makes this the season when a lot of people finally look at what is inside the account. One gold company argues most of us never chose what our savings are counted in.
From our partners
Reagan GOLD Group is not a financial or tax advisor and has no fiduciary obligations to its clients

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Now the arithmetic behind that letter in the drawer.
73
The age when required withdrawals begin
25%
Penalty on a missed withdrawal, 10% if fixed in time
$19.9 trillion
Held in IRAs across the country, mid-2026
 
That last number is the one that matters. It is a mountain of savings that has never been taxed, and our generation owns a big share of it.
Every year, another group of us crosses 73 and joins the schedule. People born in 1953 reach it this year. Their first deadline is April 1, 2027. After that, it is December 31 every year.
Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and where the IRA rules start to bite.
 
Travel
The working years built the account. Every deposit came with a tax break and a promise to pay later.
 
Health & Housing
The cohort is here this quarter
Later has arrived. The RMD lands on top of everything this stage costs, and it is taxed as ordinary income.
 
Longevity
Next in front of the money
More good years means more required withdrawals. The percentage you must take rises as you age.
 
Estate
Whatever is left passes to the kids, and most heirs now have ten years to empty an inherited IRA.
Who is already standing there
The local tax preparer with a waiting room full of retirees every January. Required withdrawals push income up, and higher income can raise the tax on Social Security too. Untangling that takes a professional. The schedule sends the clients, and the clients come back every year until the account is empty.
The honest catch? There are legal ways to soften the bill. Money sent straight from an IRA to a charity can count toward the RMD without being taxed. Planning a few years early helps too.
But none of that changes the core rule. The money comes out, and the clock is set by your birthday.
That raises a quieter question than taxes. Is the account built for the years ahead, or just sitting where it was put? Another Reagan GOLD Group guide asks exactly that.
From our partners
Reagan GOLD Group is not a financial or tax advisor and has no fiduciary obligations to its clients.

This is an advertisement. If you no longer wish to receive promotional messages from this advertiser, please click here: Unsubscribe. Or write to: 2029 Century Park E Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90067
The arithmetic
Required minimum distributions begin in the year a person reaches 73, the first may be delayed to April 1 of the following year, later ones are due by December 31, and a missed distribution carries a 25% excise tax, reduced to 10% if corrected within two years: IRS, Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs. $19.9 trillion in U.S. IRA assets as of June 30, 2026: Investment Company Institute, US Retirement Market, Second Quarter 2026, September 17, 2026. Qualified charitable distributions from IRAs and the ten-year rule for most inherited IRAs: IRS Publication 590-B. People born in 1953 turn 73 in 2026.
 
Find that letter in the drawer before Thanksgiving. Check the amount, check the date, and check whether it has already gone out. Then ask what the rest of the account is actually holding. Same time tomorrow, one deadline closer.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.

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