Retirees Have Until 31 December to Take This Year’s Withdrawals
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3 NOVEMBER 2026
By Mike Leesponsored Your RMD, In Cash or Not |
If you’re near or over 73, this matters. Most retirees take their Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) the default way. In cash. And that’s where the problem starts. Because taking RMDs the wrong way can mean:
What most retirees don’t realize is that IRS Code 408(m) allows RMDs to be handled differently — in a way that may help protect more of what you’ve earned. But timing matters. Once the distribution hits your account, options shrink fast. We created a free guide explaining:
Because the most expensive mistake… Is waiting until after the check clears. |
Three Numbers to Start
$111,000 | the most an IRA owner aged 70½ or older can give to charity straight from an IRA this year, counting toward the year’s required withdrawal. |
$3,957 | gold on Monday, about 2% above Friday’s close at its lowest level since October 2025. |
$96.46 | WTI crude after Monday’s 7.4% fall, its sharpest drop in about three months. |
ad If you’re near or over 73, this matters. Get the Free RMD Guide |
Retirees Have Until 31 December to Take This Year’s Withdrawals
Owners of traditional IRAs and most workplace plans must start taking required minimum distributions at 73. The first one can wait until 1 April of the following year; after that, each year’s withdrawal is due by 31 December. The amount is the balance at the end of the previous year divided by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS tables. At 73 the divisor is 26.5, so the first withdrawal comes to about 3.8% of the account, and it is taxed as ordinary income. Miss it and the IRS charges a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, cut to 10% if it is fixed within two years. The SECURE 2.0 law lowered that penalty from 50%.
Cash is not the only option. An IRA can pay a distribution in kind, in shares or other property, valued at the market price on the day it leaves the account and taxed the same way as cash. Section 408(m) of the tax code bars most collectibles from IRAs but carves out certain gold, silver, platinum and palladium coins and bullion, which a custodian must hold. Savers aged 70½ or older can also send up to $111,000 straight to charity this year as a qualified charitable distribution, up from $108,000 in 2025; it counts toward the RMD and stays out of taxable income.
Metals had a rough Friday. Spot gold fell 3.6% to its lowest level since October 2025 as margin calls from the tech sell-off forced investors to sell safe assets, Reuters reported, and silver dropped below $50 for the first time since late November 2025. Gold rebounded about 2% on Monday to near $3,957 an ounce and silver to $50.91 as falling oil eased inflation worries. Traders put the chance of a Fed hike in December at 77%, down from 80% a week earlier, CME FedWatch showed.
Metals had a rough Friday. Spot gold fell 3.6% to its lowest level since October 2025 as margin calls from the tech sell-off forced investors to sell safe assets, Reuters reported, and silver dropped below $50 for the first time since late November 2025. Gold rebounded about 2% on Monday to near $3,957 an ounce and silver to $50.91 as falling oil eased inflation worries. Traders put the chance of a Fed hike in December at 77%, down from 80% a week earlier, CME FedWatch showed.
Fifty-eight days remain until the 31 December deadline. Allegiance Gold’s free guide explains what it calls the No. 1 RMD trap and how some retirees reposition before the money is paid out. It is at the top of this letter.
Oil Fell 7% as Tech Kept Sliding
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 7.4% on Monday to $96.46 a barrel and Brent 7.6% to $104.77, their sharpest drops in about three months, as Iran and Qatar held a third day of talks aimed at ending the war, Reuters reported. Cheaper energy lifted the Dow 0.4% to 51,984. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 7,541 and the Nasdaq 1.1% as worries about AI spending hit chip and hardware stocks. Oracle fell 8.8% after filing to sell $20 billion of stock and notes to pay for its AI build-out, and the VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge, closed at 21.15, back above 20. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to about 4.89%.
Two of the week’s big reports came after the close. Apple posted record September-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12%, and earnings of $2.10 a share, both above forecasts, capping record fiscal-year revenue of $479 billion; its shares slipped about 1% after hours as growth slowed. Palantir’s revenue rose 96% to $2.31 billion, and it raised its 2026 forecast for the third time, to about $8.53 billion. “Our U.S. commercial revenue has surpassed our U.S. government revenue for the first time in our company’s history,” chief executive Alex Karp said.
Vincere Portfolios says its 12 trading algorithms have run automatically since January 2020, through COVID, inflation and rate hikes. A compounding account that began with $120,000 grew to nearly $2 million by early 2026, with 90.8% positive months. The track record is on the other side of the link below.
sponsored Twelve Algorithms |
Forget the sales pitch. Look at the numbers. A compounding account beginning with $120,000 in January 2020 and running Vincere's 12-algorithm suite grew to nearly $2 million by early 2026. And there's more: 70+ months of results. 90.8% positive months. Worst month: -2.58%. All while trading automatically. COVID. Inflation. Rate hikes. Market selloffs. It's all in the track record. The Vincere Portfolios Team |
Same-Day Options Hit a Record 24.2 Million Contracts a Day
US options exchanges handled an average of 70.6 million contracts a day in the third quarter, about 4% below the second quarter’s record, Cboe reported on 19 October. Contracts that expire the day they trade reached a record 24.2 million a day, about 36% of all volume and 56% of the flow in index options. Retail orders hit an all-time high in September, Cboe said, and overnight sessions in index options set a September record of about 288,000 contracts a day.
Dave Aquino says he has run one setup on one ticker, inside an 11-hour window, across nearly 900 trades, with a reported 95.3% success rate. His free guide names the ticker and is below.
sponsored The 11-Hour Strategy |
Hi - I’m Dave Aquino. I’ve spent 28 years trading options professionally. I spent a decade at Merrill Lynch. Later, I managed more than $650 million in options-income strategies for some of Vanguard’s wealthiest clients. And after nearly three decades in the market, I learned something that surprised me: Becoming a better options trader wasn’t about watching more tickers or learning more complicated strategies. It was about knowing exactly what to ignore. Because when you remove all the noise, you can finally focus on what actually deserves your attention. For me, that meant returning to the same approach again and again: One setup. One focused 11-hour window. One “rinse-and-repeat” ticker. That approach has now been used across nearly 900 trades, with a reported 95.3% success rate.* I recently wrote the entire process down in a free beginner’s guide. Inside, I explain: ✓ How the 11-Hour Options Strategy works from start to finish ✓ The exact ticker I rely on ✓ The simple 3-question filter to review before placing a trade ✓ What I learned to ignore after 28 years in the market You can read the guide in an afternoon. And right now, it’s completely free.  It took me 28 years to learn what really mattered. Hopefully, this guide can help you understand it in just 11 hours. Sincerely, Dave Aquino |
SpaceX Closed Below Its IPO Price
SpaceX shares fell 6.37% on Friday to $134.72, just under the $135 at which the company sold them on 11 June, and about 40% below their 16 June peak of $225.64. Up to 1.3 billion shares became free to sell when the first lock-up ended on 22 October, and up to 797.6 million more unlock in early December; Musk’s own stake stays locked until 12 June 2027. The company’s market value came to about $1.83 trillion at Friday’s close.
Tim Plaehn says a little-known fund lets investors collect income from this year’s IPO wave every month, at a 20% annualized distribution rate, up to $1,104 a month. His presentation is below.
sponsored Income From the IPO Wave |
2026 could be the biggest IPO year ever: SpaceX just went public, and Anthropic and OpenAI could be next. Income expert Tim Plaehn found a much simpler way to play the wave: a little-known fund paying a 20% annualized distribution rate, up to $1,104 a month. |
What Is Scheduled
Today | the midterm elections; polls close tonight. AMD and Shopify report. |
4 Nov | Qualcomm, Uber and McDonald’s report. |
6 Nov | the October jobs report. |
10 Nov | the October consumer price index. |
9 Dec | the Fed’s next rate decision. |
ad But timing matters. Read the RMD Guide |
Fifty-Eight Days
58 | days until the 31 December deadline for this year’s required minimum distributions. Allegiance Gold’s free guide is at the top of this letter. |
Forget the hot picks — mark the RMD deadline before the IRS marks it for you. Because the best trade you’ll ever make is the loss you never took. Mike LeeDeals CatchersThanks for reading. See you tomorrow. |
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