How are your investments doing?

[MossRoad]

Again, RMD’s aren’t forced withdrawals, ...

It's still a forced action. You have to move it from a non-taxed account to a taxed account, or you'll be penalized, usually at 25%.

From the article you linked to....

"Even though you're not liquidating an investment, you'll still have to pay taxes when you use an in-kind IRA distribution. "

 

[Torvy]

Again, RMD’s aren’t forced withdrawals, unless you choose that route. It’s forced tax time on the amount of your RMD.
Here’s an explanation of “In-kind” distribution “
Your money stays with them

Charles Schwab

Property taxes are forced taxes every year too

You're missing the point. This forced timing of taxation is not how this was sold to us. It was slipped into the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The ACT was created to reduce taxes. This was a small poison pill forced on Reagan in order to get his plan through Congress.

Subsequent legislation has pushed it back and exempted some plans.

Property taxes A) aren't federal. B) need to be phased out. Arguing that a tax is like property taxes isn't a winning point.

 

[Oaktree]

Property taxes A) aren't federal. B) need to be phased out. Arguing that a tax is like property taxes isn't a winning point.

And replaced with what? The money's got to come from somewhere.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Where did it come from before the introduction of income tax

 

[MossRoad]

Where did it come from before the introduction of income tax

Before the Sixteenth Amendment established the federal income tax in 1913, the government was funded primarily by
tariffs on imported goods, supplemented by excise taxes on goods like alcohol and tobacco, the sale of public land, and other fees. These sources provided the main revenue until larger expenses, such as the Civil War, necessitated new forms of taxation.

 

[MossRoad]

Like someone else said.... it came from somewhere.

 

[ultrarunner]

I get it. Simply pointing out that we could have saved our money in our 401K or IRA AFTER TAXES if we had chosen to. Later when Roth accounts became available, I (we) could have chosen to pay current taxes and contribute 100% to a ROTH account.

At the time, I (like many others) decided to save most of my contributions BEFORE TAX. I entered into that agreement knowing that I'd have to pay taxes on it later and would be forced to take distributions. That seemed like the right thing to do at the time and I entered into that "contract" freely.

I think the government is at fault for most of the problems in our world. Just can't blame "them" for our RMD situations.

What was not made clear is the Medicare etc quadrupling.

 

[MossRoad]

What was not made clear is the Medicare etc quadrupling.

If you go back several decades....