Fall checkup: Retirement planning moves to make now

With just a couple of months left in the year, now is a great time to revisit your financial planning strategies. Whether you are working and planning for retirement or enjoying your retirement years, fall is an ideal time to make key moves that can reduce your tax bill and keep more money in your pocket.

To maximize your money, a certified financial planner considers how tax strategies, charitable gifting, claiming Social Security and Medicare planning can help, CFP Board reports. Additionally, with significant changes in the tax code resulting from the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), reviewing how those changes affect your tax planning strategy is essential as the new year approaches.

Tax Planning Strategies

Tax planning can seem overwhelming to many people, but it’s a powerful way to keep more of your money working for you. If you’re planning for retirement, make sure you look ahead: Review your income sources, maximize retirement account contributions and review recent tax law changes. The end of the year is a great time to make sure you’re using all available deductions, credits and tax-efficient savings vehicles.

For those already in retirement, tax planning looks different. As the end of the year approaches, review where you fall in your tax bracket. Fidelity reports that many retirees find that their tax brackets drop in early retirement compared to their working years, which can create unique opportunities. For example, if you remain within the 12% tax bracket, realizing capital gains tax-free in brokerage accounts can allow you to reset your cost basis, diversify highly appreciated stocks and ultimately keep more money in your pocket.

Charitable Planning

Charitable giving can play a role in both retirement planning and in-retirement strategies. Many people have charitable goals and want to support organizations they care about deeply. Make sure you consider how charitable giving can fit into your overall financial plan, whether through donor-advised funds, gifting appreciated securities or other tax-efficient methods.

If you’re already retired, you can still give strategically. If you have to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from retirement accounts, you have until Dec. 31 to decide how to do that. If you take an RMD from an individual retirement account (IRA) as income, that income will be taxed. An alternative strategy is to direct that RMD to a charity, in which case, it won’t count as taxable income. If you were planning to give to charity anyway, this move supports causes you care about while reducing your taxable income.

Social Security

Claiming Social Security (SS) is one of the most consequential financial decisions Americans will ever make, and when you claim SS can have a huge impact on your benefits, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The end of the year is a great checkpoint to consider how to time your SS benefits. If you continue to work and claim early, your benefits can be reduced (depending on how high your income is). For that reason, many people delay claiming SS until they are no longer employed.

Once you’ve reached full retirement age, you can collect your benefits without reductions. However, you could receive even larger payments if you delay collecting. If you decided you’ve claimed too early and regret that decision, and it’s been less than 12 months, you may be able to withdraw your SS application and restart later at a higher amount.

Senior Deduction

With the passing of OBBBA, seniors 65 and older qualify for an additional standard deduction ($6,000 for single filers and $12,000 for married couples filing jointly) with income phaseout ranges, per the IRS 2025 fact sheet on working families tax cuts. This new deduction can help create a withdrawal strategy to maximize your deduction and increase tax savings. You’ll want to be sure to avoid unnecessary taxable IRA withdrawals that could phase you out of this deduction. If additional cash flow is needed but you are close to the phaseout range, consider drawing from cash or brokerage accounts instead. For example, if you are in the 22% federal tax bracket, each dollar you lose of that new deduction means you pay 22 cents more in tax, which is the direct cost of missing that deduction.

Small year-end moves can have a major long-term impact on your overall retirement plan, so don’t hesitate to revisit your financial plan.

This story was produced by CFP Board and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.