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Category 12

Retirement-account income strategies

Not investments — the tax wrappers that decide how much of the income you keep.

Mechanism: Tax wrapper Not an income source — a container that changes how much you keep.

Read this first
These are containers, not income sources. What you hold inside them still determines the return.

Everything in this category is paid the same way, so what separates one page from the next is the wrapper rather than where the money comes from: how much it takes to start, how quickly you could turn it back into cash, who does the work, how it is taxed, and how it fails. The line on each card says whether the income keeps arriving once it is set up or whether somebody has to keep working for it. If the mechanism itself is new to you, the course spends a whole lesson on it and is a shorter way in than any single page here.

Traditional IRA Distributions

Withdrawals from a pre-tax individual retirement account, where the cash comes from whatever the account holds and the taxable portion is treated as ordinary income in the year it leaves.

Truly passive · Available any business day once trades settle, subject to income tax and — before age 59½ — an additional tax unless an exception applies Read →

Roth IRA Income Investments

Income-producing assets held inside a Roth IRA, funded with money already taxed, where qualified distributions of both the contributions and the earnings come out free of federal income tax.

Truly passive · Contributions can be withdrawn any time without tax or penalty; earnings are behind the five-year clock and a qualifying event Read →

401(k) Income Portfolios

Building an income-producing portfolio inside an employer plan, where the menu is chosen by the plan sponsor and every dollar of interest and dividends compounds inside the trust untaxed.

Truly passive · Restricted while employed — loan, hardship, or an in-service distribution if the plan allows; fully accessible after separation, subject to tax Read →

Solo 401(k) Investments

A one-participant 401(k) for an owner-only business, where you are simultaneously the employer, the employee and the trustee, and the plan document decides what the trust can hold.

Semi-passive · Locked to the plan's distribution triggers, with a plan loan the main mid-life route; illiquid holdings inside make it slower still Read →

Self-Directed IRA Real Estate and Private Credit

An IRA held at a specialty custodian that owns rental property, private notes or fund interests instead of listed securities, so the rent or loan interest lands inside the tax wrapper.

Semi-passive · Poor. Months to sell a property, notes pay on contract terms, and private fund interests often have no secondary market Read →

Pension Income

A defined-benefit promise from a current or former employer: a monthly payment computed from a formula and paid for life, rather than a balance you own and draw down.

Truly passive · None once in payment. The only exits are a sponsor's lump-sum window or a plan termination Read →

Required Minimum Distributions

The statutory deadline on tax deferral: once you reach the required age, a calculated slice of each pre-tax retirement account must leave it every year and be taxed.

Truly passive · The account must produce settled cash by December 31 each year; illiquid holdings force an in-kind distribution or a rushed sale Read →

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