Subject: Re: Reading tea leaves
The idea behind such legislation being that many seniors today with sizable retirement accounts don’t need to drawdown as much to survive, so there are calls by many to at least reduce, if not eliminate, mandatory RMDs to help with the taxation burden, which ostensibly is probably why the age for when mandatory RMDs kick has been incrementally rising in recent years, now at 73 for those born in my age bracket.

The IRA was conceived as a tool to make it easier for middle and lower income people to save for retirement by deferring taxes. It is not supposed to be a tool to advantage rich people, which is why there are income limits and contribution limits. And originally there was an excise tax on IRAs over $1 million. The purpose of RMDs isn't to provide money to live on, it is to make sure the taxes are ultimately paid and not avoided.

I'm fine with that. The deal was I can defer taxes but not eliminate taxes, which I knew going in.