You need to receive your RMD by December 31 or you could pay a penalty – “Fidelity Investments recently reported that about half of its clients who were older than 70½—and required to take an annual distribution from their retirement account—had not yet done so for 2018. They should do so soon. Not taking all of your required minimum distribution (often referred to as an RMD) before the year closes would be a costly mistake. You could end up owing a 50 percent excise tax on the portion not taken. That’s on top of the ordinary income tax you must pay on the money you receive. “The RMD amounts can look pretty small at the beginning, but if you end up paying a penalty they can look a lot larger,” says Jill Hollander, a fee-only financial planner in Marin County, in California…” [h/t Pete Weiss]