Roth conversions · Timing
What is the best age to do Roth conversions?
By Jim Swiech, CPA · Updated
Quick answer
The years after your paycheck stops and before Social Security and required minimum distributions begin. For most people that is somewhere between 60 and 72. There is no single best age; there is a best stretch of years, and its edges are set by your retirement date, your claiming age, and the year required distributions begin: 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later.
In our example, the same $100,000 conversion costs a married couple $12,360 at 63, $18,013 at 68 once Social Security is on the return, and $18,687 at 76 once required distributions have started. Is 65 too late? No. It is usually the middle of the window.
The window, age by age
| Age | What changes | Effect on conversions |
|---|---|---|
| 59½ | IRA withdrawals and converted money are free of the early-withdrawal penalty | The five-year clock on each conversion stops mattering for penalty purposes |
| 60 to 62 | Paycheck usually stops; Social Security not yet available or not yet claimed | Often the lowest-income years of adult life; the window opens, but if you buy marketplace coverage the premium-credit line caps the year |
| 63 | Income this year sets your first Medicare premium at 65 | The IRMAA lookback starts two years before Medicare, not at 65 |
| 65 | Medicare begins; the $6,000 senior deduction is available through 2028 | More deduction room, but a conversion can phase it out and can set a surcharge two years out |
| 67 | Full retirement age for those born 1960 or later | If you claim here, each later conversion pulls benefit into taxable income |
| 70 | Delayed retirement credits stop; last reason to wait on Social Security | The window for benefit-free conversions closes |
| 73, or 75 if born in 1960 or later | Required minimum distributions begin | The RMD must come out first and cannot be converted; it fills bracket room every year |
Why the middle of the window beats the edges
Early in the window you may still have severance, a final bonus, or a spouse working, so the return is not as empty as it will be. Late in the window, Social Security and pensions arrive and start filling the brackets you wanted for conversions. The cheapest single year is typically the first full calendar year with no wages and no benefit. The cheapest plan, though, is not one big conversion in that year. It is a conversion in every year of the window sized to the same ceiling, because the brackets reset every January and unused 12% room does not carry forward.
| Stage | Age | What is on the return | Federal tax | Real rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window open | 63 | $40,000 IRA draw, no Social Security | $12,360 | 12.4% |
| Benefits started | 68 | $40,000 draw plus $48,000 Social Security | $18,013 | 18.0% |
| RMDs started | 76 | $60,000 required distribution plus $48,000 Social Security | $18,687 | 18.7% |
Is a Roth conversion worth it at 65?
Usually, yes. At 65 you get a larger standard deduction and, through 2028, an extra $6,000 deduction per person. That is more room to convert at low rates. What changes at 65 is that Medicare is now real. Your income at 65 sets the premium you pay at 67, and a conversion that crosses a line costs about $1,949 for a couple that year. So the conversion at 65 is worth it if it is sized to the Medicare line as well as the bracket, and if Social Security has not yet started. If you have already claimed, the answer depends on how much of your benefit is already taxable, which the calculator will show.
Is it ever too late?
Once required distributions begin, at 73 or at 75 for those born in 1960 or later, the distribution comes out first, and only the money above it can be converted. Even then a conversion can make sense for one of three reasons: you expect the surviving spouse to file single at higher rates on the same income, the IRA is headed to children who will have ten years to empty it, or your rate now is genuinely lower than the rate the IRA will face later. What is too late is waiting for a perfect year. The window closes a little every year, and the cost of the same conversion, as the table above shows for this household, goes one direction.
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Quick answers
- What is the best age to do Roth conversions?
- The years after your paycheck stops and before Social Security and required minimum distributions begin, usually somewhere between 60 and 72, and later for those born in 1960 or later, whose distributions start at 75. There is no single best age, there is a best stretch of years. In the example on this page the same $100,000 conversion costs $12,360 at 63, $18,013 at 68 once Social Security is on the return, and $18,687 at 76 once RMDs have started.
- Is a Roth conversion worth it at 65?
- Usually yes. At 65 you get a larger standard deduction and, through 2028, an extra $6,000 deduction per person, which is more room to convert at low rates. What changes is Medicare: income at 65 sets the premium at 67, and crossing a line costs a couple about $1,949 for the year. Size the conversion to the Medicare line as well as the bracket.
- Is it too late to convert after 73?
- Not always. Distributions begin at 73, or 75 for those born in 1960 or later. The required distribution comes out first and cannot be converted, but money above it can be. It still makes sense when a surviving spouse will file single on the same income, when the IRA is headed to children with ten years to empty it, or when your rate now is genuinely below the rate the IRA will face later.
Updated . Reviewed by Jim Swiech, CPA.
Educational and general in nature. Not tax, legal or investment advice, and not a recommendation to convert. Figures are 2026 federal amounts under the assumptions stated on this page; your return has more lines than any example. Go Beyond Tax is a brand of Swiech Consulting LLC.