[canaan]

I am 61 and want to withdraw part of my 401K to finish paying off some debt. How would I figure how much to withdraw if I wanted a cash amount of $38,000.00? :(

[ebaines]

You'll have to pay federal income tax on the withdrawal, as well as state income tax (depending on where you live). The amount of tax you owe is dependent on the tax bracket that this withdrawal will put you in, which in turn depends on factors such as your filing status, deductions, and income you may be receiving from other sources. So it's impossible to put a specific number on this without doing a lot of analysis. However, once you know your tax bracket the math is pretty easy - the amount you will need to withdraw to net you $38K after taxes is:

Amount = $38K/(1-Bracket%), where Bracket% is the total of your federal and state tax brackets.

For example, if you are in the 25% bracket for your federal return and in a 6% bracket for your state income tax, you would need to withdraw:

$38K/(1-(.25+.06)) = $38K/(.69) = $55,072

So withdrawing just over $55K would net you $38K after taxes. Now this is just an example, and it's a very conservative estimate as it ignores the fact that you can probably deduct the increased state taxes from your federal taxes, so in fact you may not need to withdraw quite that much. Like I said, an accurate calculation would require a lot of analysis.