He Took Social Security at 62 to ‘Let the IRA Grow.’ It Grew Into a $24,000 RMD at 73, Taxed in the Bracket Social Security Had Already Filled
Leaving a traditional IRA untouched while Social Security checks pile up sounds like a growth strategy, but the tax bracket waiting at age 73 can turn a decade of patience into an expensive surprise.
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A retiree who files for Social Security at 62 and leaves the traditional IRA untouched often describes the plan as letting the tax-deferred account keep compounding. A decade later, that same account triggers a required minimum distribution that lands on top of Social Security benefits already flowing in. The combined income can push a large slice of the RMD into a higher bracket than the retiree would have paid on voluntary withdrawals taken during the intervening years.
Why Grow-and-Wait Backfires at 73
Filing at 62 locks in a permanently reduced Social Security check, and it also starts a stream of income that fills the lower federal tax brackets year after year. In 2026, a single filer’s first $12,400 of taxable income is taxed at 10%, and the 12% bracket runs up to $50,400. For a married couple filing jointly, the 12% bracket extends from $24,801 all the way to $100,800. Social Security and even a modest pension can absorb most of that space long before an RMD ever enters the picture.
When the account owner turns 73, SECURE 2.0 requires the first distribution from the traditional IRA. A $24,000 RMD stacks on top of the Social Security income already reported on the return, so the final dollars of the distribution land in whatever bracket the base income has already reached. For a single filer, that is frequently the 22% bracket, which in 2026 begins at $50,401.
Where a $24,000 RMD Actually Lands
Consider a single retiree drawing $30,000 in annual Social Security benefits who now faces a $24,000 first RMD. Up to 85% of those Social Security benefits become taxable once combined income clears the upper provisional-income threshold, pulling another layer of ordinary income onto the return alongside the fully taxable distribution. The last portion of that $24,000 then gets taxed at 22%.
Ed Slott, the CPA and IRA specialist, made precisely this argument in a September 2026 Morningstar video interview with Christine Benz titled “Ed Slott: Don’t Waste Your Low-Tax Years in Retirement.” Slott’s core point: retirees surrender their lowest-tax years by refusing to touch pre-tax accounts before RMDs begin, leaving the IRS to collect at the worst possible moment.
Why the Squeeze Is Getting Tighter
Social Security benefits themselves are climbing at an accelerating pace. The SSA officially confirmed a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 on October 14, 2026, the largest annual benefit increase in four years. That follows the 2.8% COLA paid in 2026. Larger monthly checks raise the base income figure the RMD stacks on top of each year, pushing more of each distribution into higher brackets over time.
The broader financial picture for retirees is tightening as well. Average annual consumer expenditures reached $78,535 in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, up from $77,158 in 2023. The national personal savings rate stood at 4.4% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 6.2% in the first quarter of 2024, according to BEA data. Retirees leaning on Social Security and forced IRA withdrawals to cover rising costs are left with little cushion to absorb a surprise tax bill.
Filling Low-Bracket Years Before 73
The window between retirement and age 73 is what determines the eventual tax outcome. A retiree who delays claiming Social Security and instead takes voluntary IRA withdrawals or executes Roth conversions in those intervening years can move money out of the traditional account while the 10% and 12% brackets sit largely empty. (We walked through how to shrink that first RMD bill years before it lands in a free guide: here.) The same $24,000 pulled out at 65, ahead of benefits, can be taxed almost entirely at 12% rather than stacked into 22% at 73.
Three variables shape how the math resolves. First, modeling the RMD at 73 with current IRS life-expectancy factors and today’s IRA balance reveals what bracket the distribution will actually hit. Second, partial Roth conversions in the years before Social Security begins can fill the top of the 12% bracket, which in 2026 sits at $50,400 for a single filer and $100,800 for a married couple. Third, the claiming decision interacts directly with the conversion plan: filing at 62 collapses the low-tax window to almost nothing, because benefits start filling those brackets immediately.
The IRA did grow. It also grew into a tax bill that a different withdrawal sequence could have meaningfully reduced.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the SSA’s official 3.6% Social Security COLA for 2027 (announced October 14, 2026), a corrected 2023 BLS consumer expenditure figure of $77,158, a revised Q2 2026 personal savings rate of 4.4% per BEA data, and 2026 federal tax bracket thresholds replacing the prior 2025 figures.
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David Beren has been a Flywheel Publishing contributor since 2022. Writing for 24/7 Wall St. since 2023, David loves to write about topics of all shapes and sizes. As a technology expert, David focuses heavily on consumer electronics brands, automobiles, and general technology. He has previously written for LifeWire, formerly About.com. As a part-time freelance writer, David’s “day job” has been working on and leading social media for multiple Fortune 100 brands. David loves the flexibility of this field and its ability to reach customers exactly where they like to spend their time. Additionally, David previously published his own blog, TmoNews.com, which reached 3 million readers in its first year. In addition to freelance and social media work, David loves to spend time with his family and children and relive the glory days of video game consoles by playing any retro game console he can get his hands on.
