"Exactly - that's what I meant by a form of means testing. It's a little crude but it's what we have."
My wife and I have put tons of money into Roth IRA's, Roth 401k's, and 401k's. When we retire in our mid to late 50's I'll rollover all of the traditional 401k money into our Roth IRA's (in chunks each year instead of all in one year so I don't put us into a high tax bracket).
After that is done around the age 60 or 61 we'll have no taxable income until we start collecting SS. Basically, we'll have a net worth of about 2.5 million, living on $100K per year (withdrawing 4% per year from our investments, with it going up most years because it grows more than we withdraw). It'll all be tax free because as far as the IRS is concerned we're poor folks.
Let us ALL hope your investments keep going up put a Dem in charge and ALL bets are off!! I had planned to work a few more years however my 401K was so much better than I ever expected I retired last week!!! THANK YOU POTUS TRUMP!!!!