Should I Use My Traditional IRA to Fund My Life or Do Roth Conversions?
Retirement Answer Man
Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
💬 Show Notes
In this Thanksgiving Eve episode, Roger Whitney encourages listeners to carry gratitude into everyday life, emphasizing the value of recognizing specific moments and taking “mental snapshots” of what matters. He also addresses common retirement questions, including how to think about traditional versus Roth IRAs and whether to use IRA withdrawals or pursue Roth conversions. It’s a clear, practical discussion to help you reflect and make informed planning decisions.
OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN
- (00:00) This show is dedicated to helping you rock retirement
- (00:40) Roger reflects on thankfulness and gratitude.
RETIREMENT TOOLKIT
- (08:33) Roger gives a quick refresher on the three main types of accounts used in retirement planning and how each is treated for tax purposes.
LISTENER QUESTIONS
- (14:16) Roger walks through how to approach the common dilemma of using a traditional IRA for living expenses versus doing Roth conversions.
- (26:49) Dominic asks why qualified charitable distributions can’t be used to fund a donor-advised fund, even though the donation is tax-deductible.
- (30:31) BB and Shell ask whether contributing to a Roth versus traditional 403(b) and 457 plans makes sense given their high current tax rate and plans to retire and move to a lower- or no-tax state.
SMART SPRINT
- (34:35) This week’s Smart Sprint challenges listeners to make thankfulness meaningful by telling someone specifically why they are grateful for them.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
- (35:18) Roger shares his gratitude for listeners and feedback, acknowledges the complexity of retirement planning, and emphasizes his commitment to providing actionable advice while reminding everyone it’s okay not to have all the answers.
REFERENCES
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the day before Thanksgiving. |
| 0:02.9 | Let's not just talk about it. |
| 0:04.4 | Let's be about it. |
| 0:08.0 | Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence to lean in and rock it. |
| 0:16.7 | Create a great life. |
| 0:17.5 | That's the point of the exercise, right? |
| 0:19.8 | Hey there, Roger Whitney here. |
| 0:21.8 | Today on the show, we're going to answer a number of your questions, |
| 0:25.0 | including should I use my traditional IRA to fund my life or do Roth conversions? |
| 0:32.6 | Now, before we get to that, I want to talk a moment about thankfulness and gratitude. |
| 0:43.7 | Now, don't roll your eyes. |
| 0:45.4 | I know it's the day before Thanksgiving here in the United States. |
| 0:48.3 | And if you are on social media or have a news feed, you probably are seeing lots of articles and comments around |
| 0:56.0 | the importance of thankfulness, etc. |
| 0:59.4 | We can get overwhelming. |
| 1:01.9 | But here's the fact. |
| 1:03.7 | Almost every study says the core ingredient to living a life of contentment and of happiness is gratitude in being thankful. |
| 1:16.5 | Pretty much across the board to flourishing as a human, having those qualities front and center |
| 1:23.7 | are critical. Now the problem is during times like this, we see so many articles and so |
| 1:31.1 | many social posts about it that we get overloaded. And what can happen is the message can become |
| 1:42.8 | meaningless because we tune out because of the constant barrage of this, |
| 1:50.2 | especially during Thanksgiving and around the holidays, thankfulness and gratitude or something |
... |
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