Maybe the original poster’s name is “Ross”.
If I haven’t said this before, I will gladly accept all conversions (and contributions) to any form of IRA account.
Ira
5 Likes
If I haven’t said this before, I will gladly accept all conversions (and contributions) to any form of IRA account.
Ira
We just have to remember that it’s Ira’s Retirement Arrangement
If I haven’t said this before, I will gladly accept all conversions (and contributions) to any form of IRA account.
Ira
We just have to remember that it’s Ira’s Retirement Arrangement
Touche! (I don’t know how to add the acute diacritic.)
Ira
You are basically doing tax arbitrage between what paying taxes now vs. paying taxes later will be. You need to evaluate what the tax rate for your conversion will be vs. what you expect withdrawals from your IRA to be in retirement. If the current tax rate is higher than you expect the retirement withdrawals to be, you will probably come out on the wrong end of the arbitrage.
That’s the “first cut” of the calculation–what tax bracket you have now (federal + state) vs. later.
Other factors for the second-order calculation:
-Do you plan to move to another state (pay one state tax now vs. the other later)?
-Have you planned out the tax bracket rate changes, e.g., the 22% bracket returning to 25% (28%–>24%, etc.) after 2025?
-Have you planned out your social security such that you know if you’ll be getting taxed on 0% of it, 50% of it, or 85% of it?
…I found that if I take my living expenses from a Roth IRA while I’m on SS, I will pay my marginal rate (25%) on a portion of my SS (some at 0%, some at 50%). If I take my living expenses from a regular IRA, it’ll be 85%. If you happened to be right on the line of Roth + 0% vs. traditional + 85%, your marginal rate would be 46.25% (25% x [100% of the IRA + 85% of your SS]). If you (and/or spouse) are getting a good pension, you may already be at the point where you can’t do much about this item.
-If you are on Medicare, will your taxable IRA withdrawals cause you to pay more for your Medicare premiums?
-If you are not on SS or Medicare yet, is it an advantage to take the 22% (or whatever bracket you’re in) now to avoid the SS and/or Medicare hits later?
-Do you think the rules will change in the future such that it will be useful to have some of each kind of IRA so you can “play by the rules” that are in place then?
-Do you have “dry powder” to cover the taxes on a Roth conversion? I often read about people using current income or after-tax money to pay that, which is good if you have it. In my case, I kept more money in cash right before and after ER, so when I convert stock ETFs from my IRA to Roth, I do have to take a larger IRA withdrawal for the year, but I use cash that hasn’t gone down to convert volatile assets that are down temporarily (I hope).
Note also that some of your withdrawals may not be your choice due to RMDs. However, that’s what people call a “good problem to have.” I chose to optimize for poor real returns (not run out of money in advanced age) vs. minimizing taxes under average or best-case conditions.
1 Like
We just have to remember that it’s Ira’s Retirement Arrangement
-------------------
Touche! (I don’t know how to add the acute diacritic.)
Ira
It’s ALT+0233 é Voila! It works!
You can find that using the Windows Character Map (go to Start key, then Windows ? accessories.
That gives you a ton of odd letter styles, for various languages, along with the symbols for degrees, British pounds, Euros, Yen, etc. But be sure to check, because not all symbols are available in all fonts.
Back when I was working,and writing tax research memos for clients or their attorneys, or tax appeals documents, I often used the paragraph symbol ¶ ALT+20 (or ALT+0182) and the Section Symbol § ALT+21(Or ALT+0167) No other way to get those that I know of.
In my more trivial pursuits since I retired, I’ve been taking a German language course the last 3 years. German has 4 more letters than English: Ää, Öö, Üü, and ß, with the last being a double-s, which actually sounds more hissy than a regular s.
Since other countries’ typesets don’t include those, the convention is to use ae, oe, ue, and ss instead. Example: people with names like Koenig and Mueller were actually König and Müller in the old country.
So for when I send my German teacher my homework or questions (and classes have been on Zoom for the last 2.5 years; I think we’ll be in-person in the fall), I keep a strip of paper taped to the top of my keyboard with those ASCII codes for reference.
Or if you routinely write French words – which I’m guessing isn’t the case – you can configure your keyboard for French, and switch back and forth. My German teachers actually do that, instead of the way I do it.
Bill
3 Likes
You can find that using the Windows Character Map (go to Start key, then Windows ? accessories.
That gives you a ton of odd letter styles, for various languages, along with the symbols for degrees, British pounds, Euros, Yen, etc. But be sure to check, because not all symbols are available in all fonts.
In Linux you can find utilities->characters that is full of characters, divided into (among others)
Recently Used ê ç ö é
Smileys & People 
Animals & Nature 
Food & Drink 
Activities 
æ è é ê ë ñ
1 Like
German has 4 more letters than English: Ää, Öö, Üü, and ß, with the last being a double-s, which actually sounds more hissy than a regular s.
Apparently English used to have more letters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJxKyh9e5_A
(I just ran across this guy today, and when I saw your post I couldn’t resist.)
1 Like
Bill,
Thanks for confirming that the ALT+[number] method works here. I use ALT+0167 frequently elsewhere. For some reason, I assumed that this method wouldn’t work here since the Fool boards appear so rudimentary.
BTW, for those running Windows 11, the character map is now found under Windows Tools.
Ira
2 Likes
BTW, for those running Windows 11, the character map is now found under Windows Tools.
For those using Microsoft Word, it’s also found under Insert|Symbol (which access can be copied to the Quick Access Tool Bar if you use odd characters or symbols often). At least under Win10; I haven’t shifted (I’m not yet sure it’s an upgrade) to Win11.
Eric Hines
1 Like
I haven’t shifted (I’m not yet sure it’s an upgrade) to Win11
Win11 hasn’t been much of a upgrade because I haven’t needed any of the new features in Windows 11.
Make certain the applications you have support Windows 11 before upgrading. I didn’t. It was only a minor problem with one application. It crashed the first time then recovered.
1 Like
A shot in the dark, but just wondering if you have an insight into Altus Power in Stamford?
Go Huskies !!!
if interested, here is a link to their earnings report:
https://investors.altuspower.com/news/news-details/2022/Altu…
Their symbol is AMPS
My bad. That was supposed to be a PM. In compensation, I’ll tell you a joke.
What do trumpet players have in common with pirates?
Both have murdered people on the high C’s.
3 Likes