Filling the 12% bracket leaves you about $351,384 better off after tax and cuts lifetime tax on your pre-tax money by $182,684.
Pre-tax balance — defusing the RMD tax bomb
Left alone, the pre-tax account keeps growing until RMDs force it out. Converting draws it down on your terms.
After-tax net worth
Roth counts fully; any leftover pre-tax balance is valued after your assumed future tax rate. The gap between the lines is the strategy's payoff.
How to read this: converting is a bet that your tax rate today is lower than the rate your pre-tax money would face later — when RMDs stack on Social Security and pensions. Fill cheap brackets and you win; convert past your assumed future rate and paying tax early (and losing its growth) makes you worse off. All figures are in today's dollars and reuse the same federal brackets, standard deduction, and RMD table as the Lifetime Financial Planner. Simplified: it does not model state income tax, IRMAA (Medicare) surcharges, the taxation of Social Security itself, the 5-year rule, or tax drag on the taxable account — a planning estimate, not tax advice. Talk to a CPA before executing conversions.