The main disadvantage to a Roth IRA is its contribution tax status. You pay full income taxes on money you put into this account, whether through contributions or conversions. For example, say that you convert $1.2 million from your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. You would include that $1.2 million in your taxable income for that year, and would need available cash to pay the resulting taxes. Converting this amount will likely put you into the highest tax bracket of 35%.This tax status makes a Roth IRA good ...

If you’re bringing in roughly $130,000, you have some room to do conversions before you hit that threshold, at least until you have to start taking RMDs. If you don’t touch your IRAs, your combined $2.3 million could be worth $3.7 million by the time you hit the age you have to start taking money out. Your combined RMDs once you both start could be $140,000 a year; that’s considering average 7% growth, and is just a rough estimate. Even with just your pension income, you would mostly likely be paying tax on ...