SickInSantorini:
Roughly speaking, the goal is to level out your marginal tax cost over time. The progressive tax code and the reality that taxable balances cause tax drag means you will be better off with level taxes, or even somewhat front-loaded taxes, rather than low tax years followed by high tax years. So it's probably best for you to do serious Roth Conversions this year. The amount to convert moves up rapidly with the IRA balance and a "few million" is way too vague, anything might be right. You also need to think about your heirs, whether you will give money to charity, reserve some for Long Term Care, if you and your wife's health differs to where it's likely that one of you may last much longer than the other and more.
Since you don't seem too familiar with all the details of the tax laws that matter for calculating Roth Conversions and you've let it get so late in the year before addressing the possibility, your best bet to take sensible action in 2024 might be to hire a certified financial planner that works on an hourly basis to make a plan for you. Do not hire the Assets-Under-Management fee type, their help is 10X too expensive.
Roughly speaking, the goal is to level out your marginal tax cost over time. The progressive tax code and the reality that taxable balances cause tax drag means you will be better off with level taxes, or even somewhat front-loaded taxes, rather than low tax years followed by high tax years. So it's probably best for you to do serious Roth Conversions this year. The amount to convert moves up rapidly with the IRA balance and a "few million" is way too vague, anything might be right. You also need to think about your heirs, whether you will give money to charity, reserve some for Long Term Care, if you and your wife's health differs to where it's likely that one of you may last much longer than the other and more.
Since you don't seem too familiar with all the details of the tax laws that matter for calculating Roth Conversions and you've let it get so late in the year before addressing the possibility, your best bet to take sensible action in 2024 might be to hire a certified financial planner that works on an hourly basis to make a plan for you. Do not hire the Assets-Under-Management fee type, their help is 10X too expensive.
Statistics: Posted by Exchme — Tue Nov 26, 2024 7:32 am