New contribution limits, shifting tax law, and longer life expectancies mean the retirement math from five years ago no longer holds.
Retirement planning has quietly become a tax problem as much as a savings problem. Where income comes from in retirement now drives the outcome as much as how much was saved.
The practical work is sequencing: which accounts to draw from first, when to convert, and how to keep taxable income under the thresholds that trigger higher brackets and surcharges.
Longevity is the other change. A plan built to last to 85 and a plan built to last to 100 are different plans, and the difference compounds.