In what order should I withdraw from my retirement accounts to minimize taxes?

The conventional tax-efficient order is taxable accounts first, then tax-deferred accounts (traditional IRA and 401(k)), and Roth accounts last. Spending taxable money first lets your tax-advantaged accounts keep compounding, and taxable withdrawals are often just low-rate capital gains. Draining tax-deferred next handles the money that will eventually face RMDs and ordinary-income tax. Roth comes last because it grows tax-free and never has RMDs, making it ideal for late-life spending or heirs. But the smarter modern approach is to blend: in low-income early years, deliberately pull some tax-deferred money or do Roth conversions to fill up low brackets, rather than letting that balance balloon into giant RMDs later. The goal is smoothing your tax rate across all years, not just deferring tax as long as possible.