The early retirement bridge: reachable money against the years to 59½
The years between your last paycheck and 59½ are paid from a narrower pot than your net worth: only the money you can reach without the 10 % counts.
Your reachable money covers the bridge
9.9 years
9.5 years from 50 to 59½.
| Money you can reach | $500,000 |
| Bridge cost (today’s value) | $485,042 |
| Years it covers | 9.9 |
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · figures read on irs.gov and healthcare.gov · not personal financial advice
An early retirement bridge is the money that pays your spending from the day you stop working until 59½, when every 401(k) and IRA opens without the 10 % additional tax. Four sources are reachable before then: a taxable brokerage account and cash, the contributions already in a Roth IRA, a governmental 457(b), and the 401(k) of an employer you leave in or after the year you turn 55. A Roth conversion ladder and a 72(t) series can add to them later. Someone who stops at 50 and spends $60,000 a year must cover 9.5 years; with $300,000 taxable, $80,000 of Roth contributions and $120,000 in a 457(b), the reachable pot lasts 9.9 years at a 4 % real return. Stop at 48 on $55,000 with less in reach and the shortfall is $208,963. The calculator above runs your own figures.
Net worth is not bridge money
A FIRE number built as 25 times spending treats every dollar as spendable from the first day. Before 59½ that is wrong for most savers, because the largest balance usually sits in a 401(k) or an IRA. Those accounts owe the 10 % additional tax on early payments, on top of income tax, unless an exception applies (IRS exceptions table). The bridge is the subset that escapes it.
| Source | Reachable before 59½ | Tax when you take it |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable brokerage and cash | any time | only the gain, at 0 %, 15 % or 20 % |
| Roth IRA contributions | any time | none |
| Governmental 457(b) | once the plan pays, no 10 % | ordinary income |
| 401(k) of the employer left in the year you turn 55 or later | from the exit | ordinary income |
| Roth conversions | five tax years after each | none when withdrawn |
| IRA and older 401(k)s | only through a 72(t) series | ordinary income |
The first four rows are money you can count on the day you leave. The last two are mechanisms you build: a conversion ladder needs five years of lead time, a 72(t) series locks a fixed payment for at least five years. Both work, but neither helps in the first year of retirement unless you prepared them in advance.
How many years, and what they cost
The length of the bridge is simply 59½ minus your stop age. Its cost depends on spending and on what the money earns while it waits. At $60,000 a year, health premiums included, and a 4 % return after inflation, the engine of this site prices the bridge in today's dollars:
| Stop at | Years to 59½ | Bridge cost today |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | 14.5 | $676,463 |
| 48 | 11.5 | $566,141 |
| 50 | 9.5 | $485,042 |
| 52 | 7.5 | $397,326 |
| 55 | 4.5 | $252,150 |
Stopping at 55 is a special case. If the job you leave at 55 carries your main 401(k), the rule of 55 makes that plan bridge money too, and the problem largely disappears. Leaving at 52 with the same plan, it stays shut for seven and a half years. The draw-age page gives the date for each account.
Your reachable money against your years
Your reachable money covers the bridge
9.9 years
| Money you can reach | $500,000 |
| Bridge cost (today’s value) | $485,042 |
| Years it covers | 9.9 |
Two households, two answers
The first household stops at 50, spends $60,000, and holds $300,000 in a brokerage account, $80,000 of Roth contributions and $120,000 in a governmental 457(b) from a public job. That is $500,000 within reach against a bridge cost of $485,042; it lasts 9.9 years, enough for the 9.5 years. The 457(b) carries a share of the load that a private-sector 401(k) could not.
The second stops at 48 on $55,000 a year, with $250,000 taxable and $60,000 of Roth contributions. $310,000 covers about 6.2 years of the 11.5 needed; the gap is $208,963 in today's money. Three levers close it: work two more years, start a conversion ladder in the first year so that rungs open from 53, or carve a 72(t) series out of an IRA for exactly the missing income.
In what order to spend the reachable money
There is no single right order, but each source has a tax profile that suggests a place. Taxable accounts come first for many early retirees because only the gain is income, and long-term gains fall in the 0 % band up to $98,900 of taxable income for a couple in 2026. With no other income, a couple can realize about $131,100 of long-term gains a year before any of it is taxed: on $60,000 of gains the federal tax is $0, with $71,100 of 0 % room left.
Gains you can sell at 0 %
Tax on your gains
$0
| Taxable ordinary income | $0 |
| Taxable gains | $27,800 |
| Tax on ordinary income | $0 |
| Top of the 0 % band (taxable income) | $98,900 |
Roth contributions often play the reserve: tax free at any age and invisible to the premium credit, they can pay for a year in which selling shares would mean selling low. A governmental 457(b) and a rule-of-55 plan pay ordinary income, which fits naturally in the years where the low brackets are empty, often alongside Roth conversions. The early retirement calculator applies an order year by year and shows the tax of each year.
The 401(k) as a late pillar of the bridge
For someone who stops at 52 but keeps a part-time job with a 401(k) until the year of the 55th birthday, the picture changes in the middle of the bridge. The first three years run on taxable money and Roth contributions; from the exit year onward that employer's plan pays without the 10 %. A married couple taking $45,000 a year from it at 55, with no other income, owes $1,280 of federal tax on each payment and no additional tax, although the plan holds back $9,000 at payout until the return is filed. Rolling an old 401(k) into that plan before the exit brings it under the same rule; rolling it into an IRA does the opposite. Planning the bridge in two halves, a short one funded by savings and a long one funded by the plan, often needs far less taxable money than a single block.
The health cost inside the bridge
Spending in the bridge years must include health coverage until Medicare at 65. For most early retirees that means a Marketplace plan, whose premium credit depends on the income each withdrawal creates: brokerage sales count only their gain, Roth contributions count for nothing, 457(b) and 401(k) payments count in full. The order of withdrawals therefore changes the premium as well as the tax. The health coverage page sets out the 2026 and 2027 credit rules.