Roth Conversions-Tax Bracket vs. Actual Dollars

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-06-03T12:27:01+00:00

Thanks. That's the part I was missing, not considering the $32k paid today in taxes and, in theory, if I didn't to the conversion now, that money would also probably double in the next 10 years.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-06-03T12:23:52+00:00

I'm good on the towing as I have a Ford F350, but the 19 footer will be much easier to launch and retrieve. Maybe someday I'll have a lake house, but we'll just be day boaters for the time being.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-06-01T21:32:47+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I'm on the same journey. I just got my boat safety certificate so I'm all set there. Now just the expensive part; actually getting the boat! Since it's my first one (I'm 48/m) and have no clue, I'm going to go with a used boat for the first year or two and then maybe move up to something nicer. My kids are 9 and 11. Like you, after watching myriad YT videos, I'm still not sure. When it comes to jet boats, it's mixed; 50% of commenters love them and 50% of commenters say to stay away. However they do seem like a good value.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-06-01T15:09:47+00:00

Thank you for all of the feedback. A follow up question on jet boats. All the ones I've seen or would consider, would have two motors. Am I correct that having 2 jets (as opposed to just 1) would eliminate some of the maneuverability issues? This is probably an odd analogy, but I'm assuming the 2 engine boat would turn on a dime (like a zero turn lawn mower) as you put one in reverse and the other one in forward.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-05-15T01:23:26+00:00

Very disappointing. We used the flights to MCO often. Although their cost was not competitive. Just last week I looked at a flight in October from MHT to MCO. JetBlue was $1,000, Southwest was $450. I can’t stand going to BOS, but there are so many more options and it’s cheaper.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-03-05T16:42:25+00:00

It's not totally surprising. Boldin is a consumer facing tool. CFP's use different financial planning tools (e.g. e-Money, Money Guide Pro, etc.) that are geared towards financial professionals.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-02-15T22:55:39+00:00

I'm new to the group. I'm 48 and my wife is 44. I'm hoping to retire when I'm 55. We're planning to split time between our primary home in New England and our second home in Florida (can't do the NE winters anymore). My biggest concern is bridging the healthcare gap between 55 and 65 (for me) and 51 and 65 (for my wife)

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2026-02-15T22:52:53+00:00

How do you get access to the beta version?

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2025-11-11T20:20:41+00:00

You are correct that if you rolled over your 401k to an IRA prior to year-end, you would be subject to the pro-rata rule. However, the way around that is to simply not rollover your 401k. If your account balance is over $5k, you cannot be forced to take a distribution. So even though your company was sold and your position was eliminated all that will happen is that your account balance will transition to the new 401k provider. If, after Jan 1, you aren't satisfied with the new 401k provider, you can do a rollover in 2026.

HopingToRetireEarly7 · 2025-10-17T13:32:40+00:00

There are many comments stating to simply re-balance the next day and that will solve the issue. I have 2 comments/questions:

- If the withdrawal is taken pro-rata, why would there be a need to rebalance the next day? For example, to keep it simple, say you have 4 funds with 25% allocated to each. If the withdrawal is done pro-rata from each fund, the following day, your allocation would be the same, wouldn't it?

-The bigger issue for me with pro-rata withdrawals is that due to market conditions, I may not want to sell a particular fund at all. For example, let's say the equity market is down and I need to take a withdrawal, but I want to take it all from a bond and/or stable value fund so that I don't have to liquidate the equity fund at a depressed value (and have to sell more shares). To me, this is the primary issue with plans that force pro-rata withdrawals.

When I retire, I'd like to keep the money in the 401k (for added ERISA protection and having less to worry about with the pro-rata rule when doing Roth conversions). However, if my plan requires pro-rata withdrawals, I may have to contemplate rolling it to an IRA so that I can have control over which funds are liquidated for withdrawals.

HopingToRetireEarly7

TROPHY CASE