She Skipped the Roth and Retired Happier

Nearly every podcast said the same thing. Most of the articles too.

Convert to Roth. Convert to Roth. You're leaving money on the table.

So Margaret came to me half-convinced she was doing retirement wrong.

A Great Position That Felt Like a Problem

Margaret is 61, single, and retired last year. She'd built up around $2.5 million in a traditional IRA, plus a healthy cash cushion on the side. By most measures, she was in fantastic shape.

But she kept hearing that all that pre-tax money was a ticking tax bomb. She wanted to pay less to the IRS so she could spend more on the life she'd earned. The Roth chatter left her feeling a step behind.

The Advice That Doesn't Fit Everyone

Here's what the headlines often skip. To cover her living expenses, Margaret already pulls from her IRA each year, and nearly all of it counts as ordinary income. Her state takes a bite too. By the time the bills are paid, she's sitting comfortably in the 24% bracket.

Think of those brackets like steps on a staircase. Every dollar of income climbs you higher, and the top steps cost the most to stand on. Roth conversions would pull out even more income, pushing her up onto a far more expensive step for years.

The Quiet Strategy That Won

The strategic shift was simple. We decided not to convert.

Not everyone needs Roth money, and conversions don't fit every situation. Margaret's IRA is already doing the heavy lifting. We're drawing it down thoughtfully, which trims her future required withdrawals, funds the life she wants today, and keeps her on a fair step instead of an inflated one.

Forcing conversions would have raised her lifetime tax bill, not lowered it. So we passed. On purpose.

What Changed for Her

The relief came quickly. Margaret stopped feeling like she was missing something.

She travels now without a knot in her stomach about taxes. She says yes to the things she used to talk herself out of. And she rests easy knowing she's paying a fair rate, not overpaying just to check a box someone online told her to check.

The freedom wasn't a new account. It was permission to stop second-guessing.

The Real Lesson

Roth IRAs are a wonderful tool. In the right situation, I love them.

But "right for some" often gets repackaged as "right for everyone," and that's where smart retirees get tripped up. The popular move isn't always the best one. Sometimes paying a fair tax bill today, and protecting your lifetime number, beats chasing a strategy that was never built for you.

Your situation is yours alone. Let the data drive the decision, not the noise.

Thank you for reading!

Last thing – I read every single reply to these emails.

I use these responses to guide my content, so your question might become next week's deep dive.

Happy retiring,

Josh Rendler, CFP® Founder, Motion Retirement Partner, Award-Winning Retirement Firm