Kiplinger

3 Retirement Tax Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

It's easy to assume that financial choices boil down to one's preferences. While personal preferences, goals and priorities should drive most financial decisions, they often can convert a good intention into a mistake. Conversely, those mistakes may lead you astray: Setting the wrong goals, adopting the wrong strategies, and utilizing the wrong tactics. When the stakes are high (aka retirement), unfortunately, many mistakes may become unfixable.

Most soon-to-be and recent retirees don't think about taxes when heading into retirement. This is a major problem. If this is you, don't worry. Keeping taxes at the forefront of your retirement planning will help you not only avoid the following three mistakes, but allow you to take advantage of the opportunities they may present.

Mistake #1: Not grasping how your taxes will change in retirement

The type of tax you pay is the first key way your taxes change during retirement. While working, most of your income likely comes from wages and is taxed as "ordinary income." Most of your earnings come from

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