Which account to draw first when you stop working

Take a household with $700k in traditional IRAs, $300k in Roth, and $400k in a taxable brokerage. They want about $90k a year after they stop working. Draw order is not a slogan. It is which account funds that spending first.

1. Type the three balances and any cost basis you know. Nothing syncs from a bank.
2. Save an IRA-first plan and a brokerage-first plan. Keep spending fixed. Change only the order.
3. Run a thousand futures on both. Compare estimated federal tax in year one and the survival band later.
4. If the gap is noise, stop arguing. If it is material, take both exports to a tax person.

In a sample run typed into Jeme, IRA-first produced roughly $18k more estimated federal tax in year one than brokerage-first, before state tax. That gap is not a guarantee. It is the kind of range difference you want to see before you pick a default order.

Jeme never links a bank or brokerage. Projections are estimates. This is software, not tax advice. Layer a Roth conversion, nudge Social Security claim age, or raise spending by $10k in Core if you want more room than one Free plan.

The point is not a single magic order. It is seeing the tax shape of your own numbers before you commit.