Let's say you retire in January 2026 at age 45 with $1.5 million in a taxable brokerage account, all invested in broad market index funds. Your cost basis across all positions is $800,000, so you have $700,000 in unrealized capital gains. If you need $50,000 per year to live on and you start to systematically sell shares, you're not just withdrawing $60,000, you're also triggering capital gains taxes on the appreciation embedded in these shares.Index funds are tax-efficient during the accumulation phase bec ...