Model
Strategy reference

Roth conversion — 10-year window

Balance trajectory

Balance data will render here.

Annual tax breakdown

Tax breakdown data will render here.

Per-year plan

Override global defaults per year · "Custom" unlocks direct conversion entry

Full breakdown

Retirement check — age 73

Strategy reference & constraints

Conversion strategies

24% Bracket
Fill MAGI to the top of the 24% bracket ($413K MFJ). The only strategy that meaningfully depletes a $3–4M pre-tax balance over a 10-year window. Recommended as the default. Effective all-in rate ~28–30% with CO tax.
22% Bracket
Fill to the 22% ceiling ($230K MFJ). Barely outpaces pre-tax growth at 7% nominal — depletion is modest. Useful in years with additional income sources consuming the bracket.
IRMAA Tier 1 Ceiling
Cap MAGI at $218K to avoid all IRMAA surcharges. Conservative — only meaningful if you're 63+ (2-yr lookback) and want zero Medicare surcharge. Pre-65 conversions have no IRMAA regardless.
IRMAA Tier 1 Breach
Allow MAGI to $276K — paying Tier 1 IRMAA ($2,296/yr couple) to get $58K more conversion than the Tier 1 Ceiling. Usually worth it: $58K × 8% bracket savings >> $2.3K surcharge.
NIIT Ceiling
Cap MAGI at $250K to avoid the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax on LTCG. Only relevant when harvesting significant capital gains in the same year as conversions. The two largely compete — choose one.
0% LTCG Only
Stay under the 0% long-term capital gains threshold ($94K MFJ taxable income). Leaves almost no room for Roth conversion. Useful only in very early window years or when brokerage gain harvesting is the priority.
No Conversion
No Roth conversion — expenses and taxes funded from brokerage/pre-tax as needed. Pre-tax balance compounds. Useful for modeling baseline or years when large events (rental sale, inherited RMD cleanout) fill the bracket.
Custom
Enter a specific conversion amount directly. Use when you know the exact amount for a given year — e.g., deliberately converting into the 32% bracket for smoothing, or a partial-year window. Overrides all ceiling logic for that year, including the pre-tax floor.
Pre-tax floor
Optional (Tax & floor panel): stops conversions once pre-tax reaches a reserve balance. Rationale: some pre-tax dollars exit at rates below the ~28% all-in conversion cost — deductible long-term-care years (medical above 7.5% of AGI itemizes, so a $130K nursing-home year can shelter a ~$100K+ IRA withdrawal at ~0%) and QCDs after 70½ (0%). Note the SS torpedo limits the "cheap bracket" argument for both filing statuses: with frozen thresholds decayed to today's $, 12%-bracket RMDs cost ~26.6% all-in (12% × 1.85 phase-in + CO) until 85% of SS is taxable (RMD ~$68K MFJ / ~$50K single) — only ~2 pts below conversion cost. Expenses and taxes may still draw below the floor; only conversions stop. The tradeoff: LTC deductions are possible, not certain — RMD tax on the floor is known and fixed. Sharpened framing: LTC is less likely with both spouses alive (spousal caregiving) and most likely for the single survivor — exactly when RMD space is expensive — so the floor is best understood as survivor LTC insurance, sized to expected deductible care (default $250K ≈ 2 yrs of one person's care, today's $), not to bracket-filling RMDs. Carry cost if LTC never happens: ~1–2 points (survivor RMDs ~26.6% vs ~28.4% conversion). The survivor-sized indicator (12% bracket fill, one SS check) marks the upper end of a sensible range.

Key thresholds (MFJ, 2026)

22% bracket top
Taxable income
$230,250 CPI indexed
24% bracket top
Taxable income
$413,100 CPI indexed
32% bracket top
Taxable income
$512,450 CPI indexed
0% LTCG ceiling
Taxable income
$94,050 CPI indexed
NIIT threshold
MAGI — Net Investment Income Tax 3.8%
$250,000 FROZEN
SS taxation threshold
Provisional income — 85% SS taxable above
$44,000 FROZEN
Standard deduction (65+)
MFJ, both 65+
$32,300 CPI indexed

IRMAA surcharges (MFJ, 2026 couple/yr)

≤ $218,000 MAGI
$0
$218K – $274K
Tier 1
$2,296 / yr
$274K – $342K
Tier 2
$6,068 / yr
$342K – $410K
Tier 3
$10,186 / yr
$410K – $750K
Tier 4
$14,304 / yr
IRMAA uses a 2-year income lookback — income at ages 63–64 determines surcharges at 65–66. Pre-65 conversions have zero IRMAA impact. IRMAA thresholds adjust partially with CPI but with lag and rounding — modeled as approximately stable in real terms.

Key dates & ages

Medicare eligibility
Age 65
IRMAA lookback window
Ages 63–64
SS earliest claim
Age 62 (reduced)
SS full retirement age
67 (born ≥1960)
SS maximum benefit
Age 70
RMD begins
Age 73
RMD divisor at 73
26.5 (Uniform Lifetime Table)
Roth 5-yr seasoning
Per conversion (earnings)
Inherited IRA depletion
10 years (non-spouse)

Inflation & real-terms notes

This model runs in today's dollars: balances grow at the real rate (nominal growth − inflation; Fisher approximation, error <0.15% at typical rates), expenses stay flat, and every displayed figure is current purchasing power. This keeps all numbers directly comparable to your present balances and spending — no mental deflator needed, and no dependence on how far out the projection runs.

CPI-indexed ceilings (tax brackets, standard deduction, LTCG thresholds) stay flat in this frame — indexing means their printed value rises with CPI precisely so their real value stays constant. The legacy toggle scales them +inflation on top of real balances, which double-counts inflation and overstates conversion capacity ~15% per decade; it exists only for comparison with older runs.

Frozen thresholds (NIIT $250K; SS provisional income $32K/$44K MFJ, $25K/$34K single) are fixed in law, so in today's dollars they shrink at the inflation rate — and the model now applies that decay: the NIIT threshold erodes to ~$186K (today's $) by window end at 3% inflation, and the SS-taxation thresholds at age 73 are discounted for the full span from today. This is why more of SS becomes taxable over time even at constant real income, and it widens the "torpedo" zone in the survivor scenario.

IRMAA thresholds receive partial CPI adjustment with lag and rounding. Modeled as scaled with inflation (conservative approximation). In practice they may lag slightly, underestimating surcharge exposure.