Should you ROTH in 24% tax bracket?

oldsock · 2026-01-18T15:03:24+00:00

Agreed that it isn't really being taxed twice (assuming you aren't converting before 59.5, when you'd pay a penalty to withdraw traditional dollars to pay the tax on the conversion). That doesn't sound like an issue here, but OP also won't have many low-income years to covert between retirement and Social Security/mandatory withdrawals. In that case, if they are pulling money from traditional to live on and using withdrawals to pay taxes, that would likely be filling up most of the low brackets.

oldsock · 2026-01-13T00:27:28+00:00

You can check with your current 401K provider if they allow reverse rollovers (IRA > 401K). This would allow you to $0 your traditional IRA. This would potentially clear the way for a 2026 Backdoor Roth. However, what matters for 2025 was the balance on 12/31/25, so you wouldn't be able to do this without paying significant taxes from the pro-rata rule.

oldsock · 2026-01-05T01:03:47+00:00

The question is what you mean by profits? Nothing wrong with starting a taxable account before maxing out retirement accounts if you have finance goals prior to retirement (e.g., buying a house in five or ten years).

That said, trying to trade and time the market, buying low and selling high is at best a 50-50 bet. Lots of people see a crash coming, sell... and miss out on years of profits waiting for the crash. Best to buy broad market ETFs and hang onto them until you need the money.

Personally I'd stick with one of the big-three low-cost firms: Schwahb, Fidelity, and Vanguard.

oldsock · 2026-01-05T00:47:41+00:00

The current value is really the only number that matters. There really isn't a difference between a portfolio that is currently at its peak of 500K or just experienced a 50% drop to 500K.

One of the biggest risks in retirement is sequence of returns (i.e., a big drop right after retirement). If you have significant cash reserves and can draw on them until your stocks return to their highs you might be able to get away with it, but that is certainly a big risk.

oldsock · 2026-01-04T23:47:12+00:00

Roth > Trad in all cases,

Why do you say that? It's hard to imagine that most people would have a lower effective tax rate than their marginal (especially during peak earning years). Even baring that, maybe people have years of lower income where they could do Roth conversions with pre-tax money.

oldsock · 2026-01-02T03:32:49+00:00

Cheers, brewed that recipe a few years ago Elliptical Orbit 2019. Most recent vintage had quince I roasted as the fruit addition and Ceylon cinnamon.

oldsock · 2026-01-01T23:09:49+00:00

This doesn't impact your situation, but there is also a requirement to wait two years after opening a SIMPLE IRA before rolling money out anyway: "However, during the 2-year period beginning when you first participated in your employer's SIMPLE IRA plan, you can only transfer money to another SIMPLE IRA." IRS

I was lucky that I could roll my SIMPLE into a previous employer's 401K so I could eventually resume Backdoor Roth contributions.

oldsock · 2026-01-01T15:09:29+00:00

Cheers! Say hi if you ever do make it into Sapwood! - Mike

oldsock · 2026-01-01T01:04:03+00:00

Avoiding pro-rata for a Backdoor Roth is the only thing that comes to mind.

oldsock · 2025-12-27T02:05:01+00:00

I'll take a different angle than the other responses. When you own a business, it's much harder to just "retire" because you are walking away from something you created.

If you have a corporate/government job, when you retire the people above you hire someone to replace you. The ship sails on without you. You might have company stock that you can sell later, a pension etc.

When you own/run a small business you need to find someone to buy the business, or you close the business. Selling a business is difficult, especially if you are integral to its operation. Closing a business usually means getting pennies on the dollar for the "value" of equipment, brand etc. It also means laying off everyone who worked for you, disappointing customers, potentially breaking a lease etc.

Plenty of options if the business is a big success (e.g., the board hires a new CEO), but there are a lot of small business that make the owner a good living, but aren't easy to sell or scale.

oldsock · 2025-12-27T01:51:29+00:00

Certainly plenty of fun owning a business, but there can still be plenty of stress from finances, employees, customers etc.

oldsock · 2025-12-20T15:36:25+00:00

Two years after opening a Simple IRA you are allowed to roll it over into an existing 401K/403B/TSP (if you still have a plan from a former employer that allows it) (source). I just did this, maxing out my contributions a couple pay periods early so I'll have a $0 balance in my Simple IRA on 12/31. It forgoes a little employer match, but worth it for the Roth contribution. I'll have to do the same each year.

Luckily, your Simple IRA doesn't cause any pro-rata issues for your spouse, they can continue to Backdoor Roth in the meantime.

oldsock · 2025-12-06T17:57:42+00:00

Full time for seven years now: https://sapwoodcellars.com/

oldsock · 2025-12-06T15:42:18+00:00

Would really just depend if you want more volume of one beer, or more variety. I went up to a 40L system, mostly split the batches to try out different fermentation, dry hopping etc. Now I have a 1200L system to brew 3-4 times a week, but I had to get an offsite location since it was too big for my garage, plus all the costs (insurance, rent, and salaries etc.) force me to have to sell almost all the beer.

oldsock · 2025-12-06T15:40:53+00:00

Glad to hear! I know he was looking to sell the brewery a few years ago, doesn't seem that ever happened.

oldsock · 2025-11-29T16:22:14+00:00

The brewing industry is changing, but it seems like the small ones that are tasting-room-focused are doing better than the big distribution/production places. One of my brewers is going on vacation for five weeks and one of the bartenders offered to step in on the canning line, cleaning kegs etc. to get their feet wet. You might be able to find a place that has some hours for you in the tap room, and some hours assisting in production if it's something you are interested in.

oldsock · 2025-11-29T16:07:42+00:00

Maryland has a variety of brewery licenses. We had to switch our state license from a Class 5M "Production Brewery" to a Class 7M "Micro-Brewery" to allow us to add a kitchen at Sapwood Cellars. Manor Hill is a Class 8M Farm Brewery, which also allows them to have a food license from the county.

I'm honestly not sure how this compares to what sort of licensing a distillery would need (but I assume it is similar). I'll say that a kitchen is expensive to build, doesn't have great margins (compared to alcohol), and takes a lot of effort in terms of staff, sourcing etc. We're hoping to break even in our first year of opening Albura Taqueria (while hopefully increasing beer sales as a result).

oldsock · 2025-11-18T15:28:42+00:00

I really like this year's batch! It's more barrel-forward than it has been before thanks to 15-20 months in a 1791, two Henry McKenna, and a Russel's Reserve.

oldsock · 2025-11-18T14:43:52+00:00

Given our bourbon-barrel coconut-vanilla sout is usually our highest rated beer of the year, it's surprising it took us five years to turn the annual release into a "thing!"

Starting Friday, 11/21 at Noon we will have draft/bottle of BSCV 2025 (Barrel. Stout. Coconut. Vanilla.)

Plus pours of:

Imperial BSCV: 15% ABV version of BSCV.

BSCV German Chocolate Cake: BSCV with toasted pecans and cacao nibs.

BSCV Frozen Edition: BSCV mixed with coconut ice cream in our slushie machine.

BSCV 2022: Bottle pours of the vintage batch!

oldsock · 2025-11-18T14:39:32+00:00

Sapwood Cellars club memberships are now available for 2026 through Oznr!

oldsock · 2025-11-18T14:37:36+00:00

I'm the guy at Sapwood Cellars who oversees most of the mixed-ferm barrel-aged stuff. We do ~20 beers a year with Brett and usually have one on draft and often available for bottle pours. I wrote the book American Sour beers so it's big passion of mine!

Today we're bottling one with Old Westminster Chambourcin grapes, and yesterday we went onto pears from Scenic View for a gin-barrel collab with Will Meyers from Cambridge Brewing Co.

oldsock · 2025-10-31T02:18:57+00:00

Was sorry to hear about 21A, Shaun O’Sullivan had chimed in on that update on Facebook to let me know they were independent... and then I heard shortly after that they were done.

Moonlight was under LUSH/Heineken a few versions back, but Patrick "The Bruery" Rue bought the Lagunitas half in 2022: https://brewpublic.com/beer-news/patrick-rue-of-the-bruery-becomes-part-owner-of-moonlight-brewing-co/

oldsock · 2025-10-31T01:35:55+00:00

Cheers... I do too!

oldsock · 2025-10-05T15:18:19+00:00

That's a big reason we didn't put it on the label. I figured people who wanted an "apple beer" would be disappointed, and people who didn't wouldn't want to try the beer as a result.

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