Households between ages 61 and 70 that made withdrawals even though they were not yet required to take IRA distributions (i.e., not subject to the required minimum distribution rules, or RMD) made larger withdrawals than older households, both in absolute dollar amounts as well as a percentage of IRA account balance.
The bottom-income quartile of this age group had a very high percentage (48 percent) of households that made an IRA withdrawal, and that their average annual percentage of account balance withdrawn (17.4 percent) was higher than the rest of the income distribution.
Among households between ages 71 and 80 that are subject to RMDs, those that have a withdrawal exceeding the RMD amount had average withdrawal amounts that were more than double the amounts taken by those that withdrew only the RMD amount. The percentage of account balance withdrawn was also much larger for households that withdrew more than the RMD amount.
Younger households (61 to 70) that made IRA withdrawals spent most of it, while for those between 71 and 80 there was some increase in savings (in CDs and similar holdings) associated with an IRA withdrawal.
