A worked example
A Roth window in early retirement
Maya, 60, single, retired last year with $800k pre-tax, $50k Roth, and $150k in a brokerage account. Part-time work brings in $40k while her income is unusually low.
“What if I convert $50k a year to Roth for the next five years — and what does $80k a year look like instead?”
What the projection shows
Side by side: which bracket each conversion size fills in each low-income year, the lifetime tax (present value) of each path versus doing nothing, and which years cross an IRMAA tier.
What the projection also found
Nothing here was left blank. These follow from the figures above, under the assumptions this example states.
- The $80,000 converted in year 3 buys $1,299 of Medicare surcharge in year 5 — a bill from a decision two years old.
The planner arrives with this household already filled in. Change anything — the balances, the ages, the assumptions — and run it as yourself.
A projection under stated assumptions, not financial or tax advice.