How should my wife and I plan for 457 withdrawals during Roth conversion ladder? Specifically, we'll have the standard 5 years of spending in an after tax brokerage account. We were planning on doing Roth conversions from my (or her) traditional 401k to reduce our tax liability in the future (and RMDs). However, we're fortunate that my wife has a 457b account as well which allows us to tap into that upon separation from service. I can't seem to figure out the best (minimal tax liability) way to incorporate withdraws from this 457 account without pushing us into higher taxes, but perhaps this is a "nice problem to have".

Right now, the best ideas that I can think of are to 1) draw from the 457 account first while doing the Roth conversion ladder, but I think both of these are considered taxable income (not capital gains). In this case, the 457 account will probably fund 1.5 to 2 years of fully funded lifestyle. After the 457 is exhausted, we could switch over to withdrawing from our taxable brokerage account. Similarly, we could 2) draw from the 457 account first but not do Roth conversions until we're living off of our taxable brokerage account.

Any thoughts? Any ideas we aren't thinking of?

Thanks!