What should you do in a year with low income? Withdraw more from your IRA account so the withdrawal is taxed at a lower rate.

This WSJ article provided some excellent food for thought for long-term tax planning, and actually I'm planning on doing the very similar thing by timing my Roth IRA conversion. If I leave my current job, I'll start converting my 401(k) and traditional IRA accounts to Roth IRA accounts and pay my tax as a favorable rate.

"If you're in some very low years of income, and you've been thinking, 'I'll use up my after-tax investments, such as mutual funds, stocks, CDs or T-bills, and then switch to the IRA,' maybe you should start making withdrawals from the IRA instead," says Lynn Ballou, a certified financial planner at Ballou Plum Financial Advisors in Lafayette, Calif.

The decision hinges on the size of your IRA, she says. If it's large enough, typically $500,000 or more, for your required distributions to bump you into a higher bracket, you might want to start making withdrawals before you reach age 70½ so you can manage the size of withdrawals to stay within a lower tax bracket.

Ms. Ballou suggests another strategy as well: If you're still working in your 70s and have access to a tax-deferred savings plan, such as a 401(k), consider making pretax contributions to lower your taxable income. But be careful not to overestimate your ability to work in your 70s. Many people expect to work past age 65, but only 13% of current retirees have done so, according to recent research by McKinsey & Co.