Is it a great time now to convert traditional IRA to roth?

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On Nov 20, 2008 7:54 pm lowkey said:

I have a good amount of Traditional IRA, with little bit in Roth IRA. With the dive in market, seems like it would be a great time to convert some money to Roth form traditional IRA. make sense?

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(2) Answers

Guru
On Nov 21, 2008 10:58 am Michael said:

Lowkey,
Certainly, with the market down the cost of completing a Roth conversion is reduced simply because the account value of the IRA is reduced.

In the end, though, it's still only good to do a Roth conversion if the other factors for it are in your favor. Overwhelmingly, the top two factors (in order of importance) to having a beneficial Roth conversion are:
1) Tax rates. If your tax rate NOW (during conversion) will be lower than your tax rate in the future when you will ultimately be withdrawing the IRA funds, conversion is favored. Of course, this will be somewhat hypothetical (since we don't KNOW what your future tax rate will be) so you'll need to estimate as best you can based on your situation.
2) Outside money. If you have available funds outside of your retirement accounts to pay the tax on the conversion, it enhances the success of your Roth conversion.

With currently reduced account values, you'll find that it's a great time to convert, IF the above factors are in your favor. If they're not, though, then a Roth conversion still won't be a win for you.

I hope that helps a little!

Guru
On Nov 24, 2008 10:09 pm Kelly said:

I want to echo Michael's comment about tax rates. It's important to consider your own age and current tax bracket, as well as the rate of return on your investments, when making this decision.
For example, if you're in a high tax bracket now but expect to be at a much lower bracket later (as most of us expect), it generally does not make much financial sense to pull money out now unless, as Michael points out, you can pony up the tax funds out of other money so that you can make a 100% conversion. If you can't, you have to consider your age and the rate of return - can you make enough on the conversion to make up for the "loss" you would face by paying taxes now?

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