When a Roth conversion year is worth the tax bill

Suppose you leave work at 62 with $900k in a traditional IRA and little other income for two years before Social Security. Converting $42k in one of those years might keep you near the top of the 22% bracket. Or it might not. The only way to know is to put your figures on a timeline.

The trade is cash tax now versus room later. Jeme will not file your return. It will show how the survival range and taxable income shape shift when you add a conversion line in a low year.

• Enter the IRA balance, expected spending, and when benefits start. Do not connect the IRA.
• Save a plan with no conversion and one with a $42k conversion in year one.
• Run both. Compare tax estimates and ending wealth bands across a thousand futures.
• If the conversion year still looks workable in most runs, take it to your tax person. If it breaks the left tail, you know before April.

What Core adds

Unlimited saved plans let you ladder conversions across two or three years, or test a bigger bite into the next bracket. Buy Core online when one Free plan is not enough room to experiment.

A conversion is optional pain. The software's job is to show whether that pain buys you a quieter later decade.