She Retired at 64 With $380,000 in a 401(k) and No Income for Nine Years. She Never Converted a Dollar. Her First RMD Was Taxed at 22%.

Nine gap years before RMDs began at 73 gave her 12% bracket capacity that expired permanently each year she didn't convert.

Her $380,000 grew to $642,000 at 6% returns; stacked against taxable Social Security, it pushed her first RMD squarely into the 22% bracket.

Annual partial Roth conversions sized to fill the 12% bracket each gap year would have permanently shrunk the balance driving future RMD obligations.

A retiree who leaves work at 64 with a $380,000 401(k) balance and no earned income for the next nine years enters what planners call the gap years: the stretch between the last paycheck and the required beginning date when required minimum distributions (RMDs) start. A required minimum distribution is the amount the IRS forces out of a pre-tax retirement account each year once that date is reached. In the scenario laid out here, she did nothing during those years. She never converted a dollar to a Roth. When RMDs finally began, her first one was taxed at 22%. That outcome was avoidable, and the unused years carried a measurable cost.

Timeline: A Nine-Year Window That Was Legally Available

Under SECURE 2.0, the required beginning age depends on birth year. The required beginning age is 73 for individuals born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 for those born in 1960 or later. A retiree who left work at 64 and took her first RMD nine years later reached her required beginning date at 73, which places her in the pre-1960 cohort. For someone born in 1960 or later, the same retirement age would have opened an eleven-year window instead of nine. The gap years are long, and they are among the most flexible tax years a retiree will occupy.

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What Low-Income Gap Years Actually Look Like on a Tax Return

During the nine years between 64 and 73, she had no wages, no pension, and had not yet claimed Social Security. Her taxable income each year was close to zero. For 2026, the IRS set the single standard deduction at $16,100, and the 22% bracket begins above $50,400. A single filer with no other income can recognize a meaningful amount of taxable income each year and still stay within the lower brackets. That capacity is the entire opportunity of the gap years.