Deborah Jacobs.com:  “If you spent most of your adult life budgeting around a steady paycheck, a departure from the workforce, by choice or circumstance, poses a new challenge: What funds will you use to meet expenses? The answer, which might vary from one year to the next, will inevitably affect your tax bill. And that, in turn, could drastically impact your standard of living. Tax planning, which is always a concern, becomes even more important during the years between active employment and retirement. Depending on when you leave your job, that could take a decade or longer. Which assets you draw down first and how you coordinate the various moving parts will determine how much you have to live on each year and what goes to Uncle Sam.”