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Stay Wealthy Retirement Podcast

3 (More) Reasons NOT to Do Roth Conversions

Stay Wealthy Retirement Podcast

Taylor Schulte, CFP®

Financialplanning, Retirement, Money, Taxplanning, Stocks, Wealth, Business, Investing, Retirementplanning

2.4606 Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last year, I published an episode titled, 5 Reasons Not to Do a Roth Conversion. 

The 5 reasons shared were:

1️⃣ - Shadow taxes 

2️⃣ - No undo button 

3️⃣ - Lack of cash flow to pay the tax bill 

4️⃣ - You just don’t want to :) 

5️⃣ - Future charitable giving goals

Today I'm sharing three (more) reasons not to convert + why it might be ok to leave money in your pre-tax IRA.

Roth conversions can be a wildly beneficial tax planning move for the right person...

...but they aren't a "no-brainer" for everyone. 

If you want to learn more about situations when converting money to a Roth IRA does NOT make sense, today's episode is for you. 

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Last year, I published an episode titled Five Reasons Not to Do a Roth Conversion.

0:05.0

In short, the five reasons shared were, number one, shadow taxes, things like Irma surcharges

0:10.2

and the premium tax credit.

0:12.0

Number two, there's no undo button.

0:14.4

So unlike contributions, you cannot undo a conversion.

0:18.7

Number three, you lack the cash flow to pay the tax bill. Number four,

0:22.5

you simply just don't want to do a conversion. And number five, you have future charitable

0:27.2

giving goals. Roth conversions are all the rage with retirees. Just about every retirement podcast,

0:33.4

newsletter, blog, YouTube channel has content dedicated to this magical tax planning strategy,

0:39.3

including this podcast right here. And look, I love Roth conversions. I think they can be wildly

0:44.7

beneficial for the right person. But they're often talked about like they're a no-brainer,

0:48.9

and anyone with pre-tax assets should be converting them to Roth and those who don't are making a

0:54.1

big mistake.

0:55.3

Barron's recently wrote an article titled Roth IRA conversions, the best tax move you can make

1:01.7

right now. NerdWallet wrote one titled, Roth conversion ladders can combat inflation.

1:08.0

And then CMBC chimed in with another one that said, now is the perfect time for

1:12.9

young investors to do a Roth conversion. While Roth conversions can be a great tax move and could

1:19.8

be fitting for some young investors, the decision to convert isn't nearly as simple as these

1:25.3

headlines often suggest. This strategy isn't a magic

1:28.5

bullet or a no-brainer for everyone. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, a lot of

1:33.9

moving parts, and a lot of nuances. Skipping Roth conversions altogether likely will not break

1:39.9

your financial plan. On the other hand, incorrectly pursuing them could create a massive tax drag on

...

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