Do what you must.
There is no penalty for not taking your 2020 RMD.
If you take the money out when you don't have to and reinvest it you are immediately in the hole for the amount of taxes you paid. If investments made with that RMD money fall in value you are further in the hole (by the amount of tax paid) than had you left the money in.
If you do not take money out and your investments go down, they are valued exactly the same as if you had taken the money out. BUT, and this is a big BUT you have not paid the tax so you are ahead by the amount of taxes you would have paid.i
The reverse applies if your investments go up.
To me it makes sense to not take an RMD unless required or you need the money for other than investment purposes, say to buy a second or third home or more guns.
I think that you’ll find that you are now required to take your 2020 based RMD (formula applied to total amount of IRA at the close of 12/31/2020). in this 2121 calendar year.
Failure to do that has rather severe financial penalties.
That could well be true. All I was saying is that you are not required to take the 2019 RMD. This is from Vanguard and my CPA.
I pay my CPA very well to deliver me from severe financial penalties. And I trust Vanguard, been with them for decades.
Agreed about last year. There was never any argument about last year.
All references that I made concerned this calendar year.
Redux:
For those who feel that the market will fall in this 2021 calendar year AND with the market at a relative high point,,,some may want to consider taking their RMDS immediately while the market is high as opposed to waiting until later IF the market falls and causing a deeper hit to one’s nest egg.
That’s all.
