Craig W explains that tax rates are at 50-year lows, making it smart to convert traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs now. Since conversions aren't subject to income limits like new contributions, you can lock in today's rates and avoid paying higher taxes later in retirement.
The way that comes full cycle for people who've got these massive IRAs out there is that the only, I mean, to your point, Jim, what they did right was they saved taxes their whole life. So the, I like to tell people, look, that's a great habit. You did great at it. You probably saved taxes at a higher marginal bracket during your life than it's going to cost you to do what we're talking about on a marginal basis, because tax rates today are at 50-year lows. So the only way to accomplish that is you have to take control over when you pay the taxes. You have to decide on your terms what rate you're going to pay, what tax rates you're going to pay, and you got to get after it. And you do that by converting money from the IRA to a Roth IRA. And some people think, well, I make too much money. I can't make a contribution, but we're not talking about a contribution. We're talking about a conversion. And the IRS today says,
