I guess one of the things you should consider is how long you will be holding the Roth until you retire. It’s great that after five year you can withdraw money tax free - but your conversion from your IRA or 401(k) will be taxed as your present income tax rate, no ? If you let it sit in your standard IRA when you pull it out, you’ll be taxed on your then current income, whatever the hell that is. For a lot of people, they will be in a much lower tax rate after they retire than the tax rate when they converted to the Roth.
if you are a savvy, successful investor, it seems that the money growing tax-free in your Roth could offset that tax rate differential if you do great in your Roth and then eventually take the whole thing out tax-free. And then there is that thing where you have to figure out how much of the assets converted from your old IRA was original funds put in the IRA versus the profits and interest you earned in that IRA overtime. I think it’s best to convert your IRA to a Roth as soon as you put it in your IRA so that becomes an easy taxable calculation.
Which is all to say I know enough about it to know that I don’t know anything about it. I’m currently putting 8000 in an IRA and immediately converting it to my Roth for the easy math. Also, because at my income level, I’m not allowed to contribute to a Roth, absent the conversion. I believe each conversion you have to wait five years to pull it out tax-free.
As an older cancer survivor I’m putting money in my Roth because I’m optimistic that I will be taking it out 5 to 10 years from now. Financial glass half full so to speak.
Now that we are in the age of AI and AI software, it seems possible that you can get a hell of a lot of fantastic advice (that you need to check, to be sure) without paying some schmo to tell you some basic facts that you can figure out on your own.
My very best advice on financial matters is not to listen to me because I’m an idiot who knows nothing.