Roth conversion Archives

A Withdrawal Rate Calculator That Draws Down to Zero

After I put the Roth conversion tool online, the question I kept getting wasn’t about conversions at all. It was simpler and scarier: “OK, but how much can I actually spend?” Almost every withdrawal rate calculator answers that by multiplying your savings by 4% and calling it a day. So I added a mode to my own optimizer that throws the flat percentage out and solves for the real number — the most you can spend every year while drawing every account down to zero by the end of the plan.

Convert a Traditional IRA to Roth Without Paying Taxes?

People email me a version of the same hopeful question: how do I convert my traditional IRA to a Roth without paying taxes? I get why they ask. A Roth conversion lands a tax bill in the same year, and nobody enjoys writing the IRS a check for moving their own money from one pocket to another. So let me give you the honest answer first, and then the part that actually helps — the move that gets you as close to “tax-free” as the law allows.

Continue reading “Convert a Traditional IRA to Roth Without Paying Taxes?”

When Does a Roth Conversion Make Sense? What the Math Says

I spent the last stretch building a tool that answers one question I get asked constantly in the FIRE world: how much of my traditional IRA should I convert to a Roth each year? Put another way: when does a Roth conversion make sense, and how much should you do? The tool runs a real optimization model, not a rule of thumb, and the interesting part is that once I started feeding it realistic numbers, the math kept repeating the same handful of lessons. Here they are, in plain English.

Quick disclaimer up front: I’m an operations-research guy, not your accountant. This is what the model showed me, not advice for your situation. Talk to a tax professional before you act on any of it.

Free Roth Conversion Software (Coming Soon)

This is the part of the series I’m most excited about: turning my spreadsheet into free, online Roth conversion software — really an optimizer — that you can run on your own numbers, without owning Excel or knowing what a solver is.

The Roth Conversion Math: A Linear Program

This is the “show your work” post in the series. If you came for the FIRE strategy you can happily skip it; if you want the Roth conversion optimization written out as an actual linear program — decision variables, constraints, objective — this is for you. It mirrors the Excel + OpenSolver model I described in part 2.