The case
Tom came home from church with a bulletin that said "Roth it all." Linda has $260,000 in a traditional 401(k), and the plan on the table is Walt's: convert all of it in one go.
We run the conversion the way the tax code actually works: the tax bill, the Medicare surcharge, the Social Security tax trap, and the later years when the withdrawals would have been taxed anyway.
The verdict
Not all at once, and not this year. In this example, converting the whole account in one year costs about $53,800 in federal tax. A better plan builds the Roth in small slices after retirement, where the federal tax is zero.
This is a verdict for Linda's facts, not yours. Her numbers are an example we chose. Use the free tool below to test your own.
Free tool for this case
Roth Check: put in your own numbers and see the same checks the case ran.
What is inside the video
- The church bulletin
- Everyone has advice
- The four rules
- Walt's plan, tested
- The part no calculator can handle: why Tom wants it
- Receipts: where every number comes from
- The verdict, and three things to do this week
Sources used in the video
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 tax brackets and standard deduction)
- Medicare.gov, Costs (Part B premium and income-based surcharge)
- IRS Topic 423, Social Security and equivalent Railroad Retirement benefits
- IRS, Retirement topics: required minimum distributions
Linda and Tom are fictional. The narration is a synthetic voice and the illustrations are made with AI tools. Educational only, not financial, tax or legal advice. Tax figures are federal and leave out state income tax. How we check our numbers.