I’m 69 and Single with $1,000,000 in IRAs - Should I do a Roth Conversion?

[@SicilyJo]

This was an excellent presentation. So on target these 2 scenarios. Thank you!

[@M22Research]

1) Implied, but I did not hear it said - Sue’s potentially future tax impacting RMD is largely a non issue since she’ll be withdrawing about the same amount for her spending anyway. ($60,000+$7,500 = $67,500 spending minus Social Security $25,000 = $42,500 needs from her IRA/401K, more than what her initial IRA/401K RMD will be.) Jane’s future RMD will drive her into a higher tax bracket, so minimizing the size of that RMD by converting some IRA/401K money to a Roth IRA makes sense. ($48,000 spending minus $25,000 Social Security = $23,000, about half what her initial RMD will be, thus “unnecessarily” driving her up into a higher tax bracket.) Another factor impacting whether to do a Roth conversion - does either of these women have post tax (brokerage or savings) money to pay the Roth IRA conversion tax? If you have to pay the Roth IRS conversion income tax out of the Roth IRS conversion withdrawal amount itself, you are undercutting the net Roth IRA balance of tax protection you’d otherwise achieve by paying those income taxes out of post taxed funds.

[@martinneumann9345]

Also need to consider IRMA brackets for Medicare. A big conversion would trigger large increase in Medicare costs that would affect SS benefit.