It's conventional wisdom that you should delay tapping your IRA as long as you can. Then there's the tendency of most retirees to claim Social Security benefits as soon as possible. The unintended consequence of this that you're likely to shorten the life span of your nest egg. A growing body of research shows that flipping the order may be wiser. You could lower the lifetime tax bite, collect years of higher benefits and extend your portfolio's longevity if you delay Social Security and take larger IRA withdrawals in the early years of retirement.
