Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Would it ever be a bad idea to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA with the following assumptions?
Even if you're paying a lot of taxes now, you're talking marginal dollars when you look at current contribution, and average tax rate when making withdrawals.  IE, if you currently pay 28% on your last dollar (and assuming your contribution is entirely in your marginal rate), then you're paying 28% on all of the Roth contributions, but probably paying a lower average tax rate, due to the lower tax rates on the first many dollars.   Look at the overall average tax rate of your expected retirement income - if you're expecting to pull out $100k a year, you're probably paying less than 20% in average taxes, because the first third or so is taxed at a very low rate (0 or 15%), assuming things don't change in our tax code.  Comparing that to your 28% and you have a net gain of 8% by paying the taxes later - nothing to shake a stick at. At minimum, have enough in your traditional IRA to max out the zero tax bucket (at least $12k).  Realistically you probably should have enough to max out the 15% bucket, as you presumably are well above that bucket now.  Any Roth savings will be more than eliminated by this difference: 28% tax now, 15% tax later?  Yes please. A diversified combination is usually best for those expecting to have a lot of retirement savings - enough in Traditional to get at least $35k or so a year out, say, and then enough in Roth to keep your comfortable lifestyle after that. The one caveat here is in the case when you max out your contribution levels, you may gain by using money that is not in your IRA to pay the taxes on the conversion.  Talk to your tax professional or accountant to verify this will be helpful in your particular instance.