A Retiree's Guide to Selling Investments
It would be nice if you could finance your retirement entirely from Social Security benefits and the income you receive from your investments (typically as dividends from stocks and interest from bonds). Unfortunately, most retirees will need to sell off at least a small percentage of their investments each year to cover the gap between income and expenses. The question is, which investments should you sell to get that money?
Most retirees will have investments tucked away in several different types of accounts: tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, the Roth versions of same, and likely a standard brokerage account as well. If you held exactly the same investments in each of these three types of accounts, the base returns would be identical but the amount of money that would make it into your pocket would vary because of tax differences.
Source: Fool.com
