CA+US Parallel49
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Drawdown-Order Optimizer

Which account you draw down first in retirement changes how much tax you pay, year over year — RRSP withdrawals carry Canadian non-resident withholding on top of US ordinary tax, taxable brokerage gains stack differently than ordinary income, and TFSA/Roth withdrawals are free. This simulates your full retirement year by year and compares withdrawal orders. General information only, not tax advice.

Guide:RRSP vs. TFSA vs. 401(k)/IRA: Retirement Drawdown Order — the full walkthrough behind this calculator.
Your inputs are saved in this browser automatically, so you won't lose them on refresh.Saved
Heads up: the balances below are pre-filled with a made-up example scenario, just so you can see how the drawdown simulation works before you commit to typing in your own numbers. None of this is your data. Replace each field with your own numbers whenever you're ready — or use the button to reload this example any time.

Balances at retirement

↺Defaults to your projected balances at retirement from the CoastFIRE Calculator — adjust if you expect an account to grow differently than the rest of your portfolio.
CA Canadian accounts
US US accounts
FHSA, RESP, and HSA aren't included here — they're pre-retirement, beneficiary-owned, or medical-conditional accounts that don't fit a standard retirement decumulation sequence.

Plan assumptions

Quick adjust — drag to see the projection update live

15%

Recommended withdrawal order

Simulated year by year from your retirement age to your plan-to-age, using your CoastFIRE Calculator's retirement age, spending, growth rate, and benefit-timing inputs. All figures below are shown in USD equivalent, since US federal tax brackets are the binding constraint on the ordering.
Total lifetime tax (recommended)
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Ending balance (USD equiv.)
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Portfolio lasts until
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Tax saved vs. worst order
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401(k) / IRA RRSP Taxable brokerage TFSA / Roth
StrategyTotal lifetime taxEnding balancePortfolio lasts until
ℹ️RRSP withdrawals are modeled with a simplified foreign tax credit
RRSP withdrawals owe both US ordinary tax and Canadian non-resident withholding. Real treatment requires Form 1116 foreign-tax-credit mechanics (baskets, carryovers). This tool approximates it by taxing the RRSP slice at whichever is higher — its marginal US rate or the 15% treaty withholding rate — assuming the credit fully absorbs the smaller of the two.
ℹ️Taxable withdrawals use a flat rate, not cost basis
This site doesn't track adjusted cost base for taxable accounts, so capital-gains tax here is a flat rate applied to the full withdrawal amount above — a deliberately simple, conservative over-estimate rather than a real gain calculation.
ℹ️CPP, OAS & Social Security are treated as untaxed
Consistent with how the CoastFIRE Calculator treats government benefits elsewhere on this site — real Social Security can be up to 85% taxable, and CPP/OAS are taxable income too. Budget some cushion for this.

Year-by-year detail (recommended order)
AgeYear401(k)/IRARRSPTaxableTFSA/Roth US TaxCDN WithholdingTotal TaxEnd Balance

❓ Glossary & how this is calculated
Withholding tax
Tax withheld at source by Canada on RRSP/RRIF payments to a non-resident — 15% under the treaty's periodic-payment rate, layered on top of whatever US ordinary tax the withdrawal also owes.

Why does the order matter? Each dollar withdrawn from a 401(k)/IRA or RRSP is taxed as ordinary income and can push you into a higher US bracket, while TFSA/Roth withdrawals are free and taxable-brokerage gains use a flat rate — so spending down the tax-free accounts last, and filling cheaper brackets first, generally minimizes lifetime tax. This tool simulates all four orderings year by year and recommends whichever comes out cheapest for your actual numbers.

Why USD? US federal tax brackets are the binding constraint on the ordering, so every figure here is converted to USD at your saved exchange rate up front, then simulated entirely in USD.

Next: Compare Scenarios — save this withdrawal order and compare it against a different one.
Figures current as of 2026
  • 2026 — CPP, OAS & Social Security maximums, HSA contribution limits, the capital gains inclusion rate, and moving-back thresholds are all updated for 2026.
  • Jan 2025 — Social Security Fairness Act repeal of WEP/GPO reflected in the Benefit Timing amounts.
  • 2026 US federal tax brackets and standard deduction, per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 — used by this Drawdown-Order Optimizer.
  • Last independently verified: August 2026 — bracket edges and standard deduction checked line-by-line against Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
  • Full sourcing & citations for this page →