u/Master-Helicopter-99

Interesting demographic but I 59M with wife 37F and a son 3M are looking to retire. Currently in the Midwest. I must get away from winter but everywhere I look it's brutally hot in the summer We have already visited specifically looking for retirement options Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas, DFW, Austin, Houston. We are going to Vancouver WA and Lacey WA next (Lacey becomes more obvious in the next two paragraphs) and then Atlanta, Charleston SC and Jacksonville FL later this year.

Specific requirements that make decisions difficult. We need to be within 20 minutes of good Asian grocery stores and within 30 minutes of a good Vietnamese grocery store. So, that probably rules out 87% of the US. Maybe more.

Bonus points for an airport that flies to Vietnam in two flights but that really limits us to Seattle, Phoenix, some CA cities, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta unless I missed one. I said "some CA cities" because CA is out as a retirement destination. Sacramento was considered briefly, but not really an option.

Then we need to consider good schools for our kiddo.

Am I missing anywhere not listed above?

The "Why is everyone afraid of RMDs" thread made several references to this. My thought is it's not that much money. A married couple with a MAGI of 274K pays a whopping $95 a month in surcharges. Run that up to $340k and the surcharge goes to $240 a month. That's less than 1% of your $340k. At these income levels the surcharge doesn't even move the needle. Even if you hit the max of over $750k it is less than $7,000, still less than 1%. If it is convenient to minimize MAG or you are right on a bend point, of course go for it. But at these levels I wouldn't let it drive withdrawl decisions. Am I missing something?

Where would you hold cash savings? SGOV seems best. Fidelity specific. Shouldn't need to touch this for one year. The rest in this account is in VT. This is a smaller brokerage account that I just started. Still working and the rest is in 401k and IRA. Retiring this time next year. Currently in a 4% income tax state. It appears that SGOV will be the best return and is almost 100% state tax exempt for truly liquid funds but didn't know if there was any other options