Retirement For Life

Your Top Questions About Roth Conversions - Answered! - Ep 37

• Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP® • Season 2 • Episode 37

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Roth conversions present one of the largest financial opportunities for a generation of savers, especially for those in their 60s with substantial retirement account balances. We address the six most common questions from our viral Hidden Roth Conversion video that generated nearly 1,000 comments and 100,000 views in its first hour.

• How to pay taxes on Roth conversions without substantial cash reserves
• Converting retirement funds while still employed, even when your employer doesn't offer Roth options
• Understanding how Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) and Roth conversions work together
• Accounting for healthcare costs and IRMAA surcharges during conversion years
• Why the math works even when considering the opportunity cost of paying taxes early
• Addressing concerns about potential future taxation of Roth accounts

We encourage everyone, especially those with substantial IRA or 401(k) balances, to consider Roth conversion strategies before potential tax law changes make them less effective. The sooner you get started, the better off you'll be.


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Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

All right, episode 37, hidden Roth Conversion video has gone viral. Wow, the comments nearly 1,000 comments. We've never had a video with 1,000 comments and within the first hour of this video being published we had over 100,000 views and it certainly attracted the attention of a lot of people. But reading the comments produces questions that you really want to answer and it's very hard when you have a YouTube channel to answer 944 questions. So we put this into ChatGPT. Here's a file of 944 comments from the Hidden Roth Conversion video. Summarize them into the six most thoughtful, most commonly asked questions about Roth conversions. Keep in mind the topic of this video is most useful for those in their 60s with large IRA balances saving money in taxes.

Intro:

Today we are going to talk about the six most common questions that people in their 60s have about Roth conversions. Are you guys excited? Let's go have about Roth conversions. Are you guys excited? Yeah, let's go. From your host, Christian Sear CPA, the passionate retirement specialist and president of Sear Financial Wealth Advisors, the independent registered investment advisor specializing in the AIM retirement system.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

All right, so the six questions I think we have looked at and we've pasted in comments. So if you're listening to this, great, but you probably want to watch, because the comments that people have actually posted are right here on this video. Brooke, what's the first question about Roth conversions?

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, the first one is how do I pay my taxes on a Roth conversion if I don't have $50,000 sitting around in a bank account?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Before you guys talk. This is a great question. We get it a lot. This is a person who understands Roth conversions. So these people understand Roth conversions because why? How do you pay taxes if I don't have money in the bank account? What's your answers?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

You have to pay out of the conversion.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, ideally you'd have some money that's not tax deferred to pay the taxes on the conversion, but that's not always the case and that is something we take into account. One of the comments from DJ Carter you know he's saying the biggest omission in the scenario is you know what's the size of the balance inside your 401k if you don't have 30 to 50k per year to pay the taxes? So that is something we take into account. Do you have the taxable money to pay the taxes or not? That can really help us decide what the best strategy is for you. We can take the taxes out of the conversion amount, which is not ideal but it's possible, or we can adjust the conversion size each year to help it fit within your living standards.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Andrew, we've been doing this for a long time. How often do we have a client that doesn't have the money to pay the taxes?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I mean I would say more than half the time they don't have that kind of cash just sitting in a taxable account, so they have to do it within the conversion. But I mean you're going to have to do it eventually, right? So you're either doing it when you're doing the conversion or you're doing it when you're 80. Either way, you have to use that money out of your IRA or 401k.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I mean, there's two clear things about a Roth conversion. Number one is, the sooner you get started, generally the better off you are. And number two, it's optimal, if you have to pay taxes on a conversion, to use money outside of your IRA or 401k to pay those taxes. But and I'll show you an example here in a second Very often it still makes sense to do a Roth conversion and people don't understand. Can you show the example here? So I went back and so the first column here is the actual example I use and everyone's situation is different, right, but the example I used was a 62-year-old couple that were going to work for three more years and these are the balances I put in. So that first line joint investment account, that is the account in an optimal fashion that you would pay taxes.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So let's be clear You're doing $100,000 Roth conversion. Ideally, you move the entire $100,000 from your 401k or IRA into your Roth and you pay, let's say, $20,000 in taxes. Ideally't have half a million dollars sitting in a joint investment account. So I did two alternatives here. So the first one I said okay, $2 million, it's just reshuffled. You don't have money sitting in a bank account to pay the taxes. You can still see the same couple is better off by half a million dollars if they have just reshuffled their $2 million. And then the third one you can see. I said okay, you have no money, all your money is sitting in Roth or, excuse me, all your money is sitting in 401ks IRAs. You're still better off.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, and it's something that the software that we use takes into account where the money is held and in what type of account. So you know, even if it's not the optimal strategy, if $500,000 of that was in your joint investment account or bank account it would look better, but it's still something that it's calculated in there and, like that commenter said, the second comment was basically well, does the growth still make sense? The tax-free growth does offset. In this scenario it's just slightly less of a benefit, Right?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I feel like, in general, when we're showing results, people always say well, what about this? What about that, and the answer always is yes, we're taking that into account. We're taking into an account everything, so it's a good question. All right, brooke. What's the next question?

Brooke Fay:

What's the best Roth IRA investment strategy at age 50 plus?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

This is quite the question, but it is something that we hear all the time. It's obviously something that totally depends on your scenario.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

It's like asking the question what's the meaning of life?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yes exactly.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

I mean, yeah, you need to know what their income is, because not everyone can put directly into a Roth right.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

So I mean it's just kind of we could give you, you know, like specific rules of thumb to follow, like start early, start planning early or stop putting into an IRA if your balances are high. But really I think this kind of thing does require a full plan. There's really no way around it If you're just converting random amounts of money every year. There's no way to tell if that's optimal in the long term without a full retirement plan.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Two things come to mind. The first is my friend, brian, who I've used on this podcast so many times and I love Brian, he's truly one of my dear friends. But we were talking about the videos and he asked me he goes okay, what should we do? What should our Roth strategy be? And my answer was I can't answer that question Too many variables. There's literally like 50 things I need to know about you before I can answer that question.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah Well, and like the first person says, I'm 50 and I have a Roth IRA through Fidelity. So a lot of times people are talking about Roth contributions versus Roth conversions, which are different things too. So a lot of times we see in these comments a confusion between contributions and conversions.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, and we'll talk more about that later. But you're right, andrea. Contributions and conversions yeah, and we'll talk more about that later. But you're right, andrea, a $7,000 annual contribution to a Roth IRA is not what we're talking about here.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yep.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Talking about taking a million dollars and converting it over a period of time to a Roth a conversion. So Brian is in that typical scenario, just like this person. What's the best investment strategy? It depends right.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

We just had a person schedule a first meeting with us and they want only the plan for the Roth conversion. They don't want to talk about the Social Security, the taxes, the mailbox money, the long-term care, the health care and the analogy I gave him. I'm like, look, you just wanting to talk about the best investment strategy or best Roth strategy in this case is like asking SpaceX, the company headed by my buddy Elon Musk, who puts rockets up into space like 100 times more efficiently than NASA puts rockets up into space like a hundred times more efficiently than NASA.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Just get me to the Earth's first atmospheric layer and I'll just do the rest. It's like no, yeah, it doesn't make sense you have to look at it all in one, and there's another good comment in here, something about so. Is that Jim OC3SP? Did I read?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

that correctly.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yep, yep, no offense to Jim, but he just doesn't get it. And what he says? Read what he says here.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, he said. My wife and I both have standard IRA policies and wanted to-.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Not policies, they're accounts. Go ahead.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

And wanted to convert to Roth, but every year we already owe taxes at the end of the year and our financial advisor told us that if we tried to convert now, we would pay even more end of year taxes.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I try and be so clear on these videos and in my mind I'm being so clear, but clearly I'm not being clear. I said that if you're going to crystallize the Roth IRA conversion process, it's about taking control of your taxes, because if you don't, the government's going to take control of them for you later on in life. A Roth conversion essentially lets you be in control and I even said you put a CPA together with a CFA, with a CFP. The three of them sit in the room. Chances are they're going to be able to develop a better strategy for you to pay your taxes that's going to result in less taxes. A better strategy for you to pay your taxes that's going to result in less taxes than the government wants you to pay them.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, and like in this scenario, jim and his advisor have a very short-term view. They're looking at one year. Yes, you're going to pay more this year, but really we're looking at long-term. You know large savings.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

You are paying an extra $2,000, $3,000, $20,000 this year to avoid $60,000, $70,000 of increased taxes when you're 75 or 80.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, but if we had to answer this question, what's the best strategy? I would say start early and have a full plan. That's really all we can say about that.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Great answer, Emma. Andrea, would you improve upon?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Emma's answer.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

All right. Question three most commonly asked by 60-year-olds with large 401k or IRA balances. About Roth conversions, brooke.

Brooke Fay:

How can you convert our 401k to Roth while still working? My employer doesn't offer a Roth.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

This is a good question, yeah, and we do see quite a few companies that don't offer a Roth. This is a good question, yeah, and we do see quite a few companies that don't offer a Roth.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I mean ideally. Yes, you're going to put into a Roth 401k. If you're 59 and a half, then you could move your 401k into your own hands and take it out of your employer's hands.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

And the other thing you can do is start with funds that are not in your current 401k. Can do is start with funds that are not in your current 401k. If you've ever switched jobs or if you're retiring soon and you're not 59 and a half, you can start with those funds outside of your current 401k and start the conversion there and then wait till you're 59 and a half or retired to convert the remaining 401k.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, a loaded question here with a simple answer. But check out the video we made in December the 401k trap. You could argue that a lot of people, high earners especially, should not even be putting perhaps money into their 401k. All right, but if you are some people that make sense if you have money in your 401k. Remember who is this video geared towards? What did I say at the very beginning? This is geared towards who? 60-year-olds 60-year-olds with large 401k balances.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

If you're 60, Andrea, you just said it. What can you do with your 401k balance, even if you are still working?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I mean, if you're still working.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Do an in-service distribution, take the money, move it to an IRA that's not taxable, yep and then you can do your Roth conversion, even if your 401k doesn't have the Roth option. So good question, common question how can you convert? You can. You have to talk to your advisor, you have to look into your 401k plan, but if you're 60 years old, this is something you should be looking at now, even if you're still working. End of story.

Brooke Fay:

Question four how do required minimum distributions and Roth conversions work together?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, this is a common question too. So the first comment was things like required minimum distributions for Roth 401ks are gone. Also, some high income earners will have to make certain catch up contributions as Roth starting in 2026.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I mean, I guess the first part of that comment is like just telling us something we already know. The second part is wrong. The word have Right. You don't have to make catch upup contributions. Right you can make catch-up. The second one is better. So I showed in the video that a person is taking $190,000 of required minimum distributions. And what is? What's that guy's name? Smart?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

S-Man, s-man.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

What does S-man say?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

He's saying that your RMD is only 4%, so it's easy to take out and reinvest. Roth conversions can't be spent for five years and you lose the return you get on the taxes.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

And people also say that often that you cannot-.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

S-man doesn't get it.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

It's really a misunderstanding. Doesn't get it.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yes, you can take 4% out and reinvest it. We're comparing the alternative to that not having to take out anything.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Not having an RMD at all.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Right.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Converting before your RMDs.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yes, S-Man, you can take out 4% and pay the taxes on it and reinvest it, but you can also do it ahead of time, take control of your situation. And here's another thing S-Man, that is true. It's 3.77% when you first start taking RMDs. But what is? Here's the question of the day. It goes up every year. Question of the day we're not keeping track of this on the official scorecard. Just throw out a guess, wild guess what is the percentage you have to take out when you are 85 years old?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

6%, what do you think, brandon, higher or?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Higher.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, andrea's right, you're both right. It's 6.25% Okay, so S man.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, it goes up every year.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Understand that. And here's the thing If you retire with the 401k balance our example was $1.5 million Okay, are you going to empty out that $1.5 million in your IRA in the first year? Just for no no. You're going to take a little bit out. You're actually going to take out as little as possible right. You're going to hopefully have other sources of funding social security savings things like this so, in a perfect world, you're going to take out the very minimum. And what's the average growth rate, maybe, of a retirement portfolio? What percent?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Maybe 6%, 6%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So, s-man, you're taking out 4% of your IRA in the first year and it's growing 6%. What happens to that IRA balance, ladies?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

It's going up.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

What happens the next year?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Continues to go up.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Very, very commonly we will see retirees with a large 401k balance that just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Hence the ticking tax time bomb Now S-Man, when I'm showing an example of taking $190,000 out of an RMD at age 82, that is very reasonable, it's very common.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah. And then the second part of his question is you know he's saying Roth conversions can't be spent for five years, which is not true. The five-year rule only applies to earnings on the Roth. So if you convert $100,000, you can take that out at any point, just the earnings cannot be taken out.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Plus, your age is a factor If you're over 60, which is our goal right to be talking to 60 to 60 year olds that are already retired.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Was this video made for Andrea?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

And ultimately, when we do convert to Roth, we're not even thinking about taking that out for a long time anyway, so that it shouldn't be a concern or really even a question on this topic.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Okay, right, I mean, if we're converting it, we don't. We're ideally leaving the Roth alone and just letting that grow, so we don't really want to access the conversion anyway.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So the common misconception about Roths in general is that, usually speaking, if you put $100 into a Roth for a contribution, if you're 35 or 55, you put $100 into a Roth, or 55, you put $100 into a Roth, the very next day you can take the $100 out of the Roth IRA with zero penalty, as Emma indicated, if your $100 grows to 105, yes, there are rules, like the five-year rule for that $5 of earnings, but the $100, you can take out tomorrow.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And once again, essentially, essentially, once you turn 59 and a half, most of those rules go away. If you're a 60-year-old person and you convert $100,000 to a Roth, you can take that $100,000 out. There is a five-year rule, but it does not apply for the people that we are speaking to in this video. Talk to your tax advisor, obviously, but the five-year rule is a misconception. That was a big question. We've got two more to go. What's question five about Roth conversions for 60-year-olds?

Brooke Fay:

You're not accounting for the lost growth of investments from having to pay taxes.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

This is just not true. We are accounting for it. It's something where the long-term non-taxable growth and getting rid of all that tax-deferred money it outweighs even the taxes that you pay out up front. So we are accounting for it.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

These kind of questions frustrate me. These comments frustrate me Again. I'll go back to my buddy, elon Musk's SpaceX. Okay, that's like saying, oh yeah, you can get a rocket to outer space, but you're not accounting for gravity. I mean, who? Cfp, cpa firm would not account for lost growth of investments? In showing an example on YouTube that has 200,000 views, it just frustrates me.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And I shouldn't get frustrated, but I do, and I don't read these comments a lot of times. Yeah, until you guys Brooke, emma would be like. Just yesterday, andrea, you said to me well, at least nobody's talking bad about me, only Chris. It's like why do you guys talk about that? I mean, and I don't like reading these comments because they're just wrong. You can't please everybody all the time, and I would say a lot. Most of the comments are great comments.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Most of our viewers have great questions, great comments, but some people are just yeah, and there are some valid questions that go alongside this and that would be, I think, more related to health care costs, which are valid. A lot of times we see people that are not 65 yet doing Roth conversions, that have to pay quite a bit for their health care, and that is you know something where, in those five to 10 years where you're converting, you are going to have to pay you know pretty high premiums for your health care. But again, we are accounting for it and actually, when you compare it to you know, when you start Medicare and have IRMA charges, it's actually less of an impact paying those heavy fees up front for the five years rather than paying those IRMA charges for, you know, years and years after you turn 65 and after you start RMDs. It's actually less by doing it now versus later.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Right, it's not like IRMA is avoidable. You're either going to pay it initially when you're doing the conversions, or you're going to pay it when your RMDs are excessive at 80. Wouldn't you rather pay it when you're 60?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Let's be very specific. You are 65 years old. Your financial advisor, slash CPA, has said you're going to do a Roth conversion for the next five years. Okay, you are on Medicare right In America, how do we pay for our Medicare Part B? Where does it come out of?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Social Security.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Your Social Security check is usually reduced. If you are already taking your Social Security, you will see it's reduced by an amount to pay for Medicare Part B. That is what people call IRMA taxes. Okay, for those of you who don't know, that amount is variable based on your income. So people are saying look, oh my gosh, I'm doing a Roth conversion from the age of 65 to 70. I am paying $500 a month for Medicare Part B. Oh my God. Yes, that's a concern. What you don't see is that that is only for five years. Once you turn 70, the Roth conversion is turned off.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Your income goes way down, as I showed in the video. Would you rather pay high IRMA taxes, Andrea, for five years or for the 20 years from ages, let's say, 70 to 90?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Exactly.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

It's just common math. Yes, at some point with a $1.5 million 401k, you will be paying a lot of IRMA taxes. You can do it for five years, or you can do it for 20 years. The Roth conversion generally allows you to do it for a smaller period of time. It's just as common sense.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

And the same thing applies if you're on marketplace insurance, which a lot of our you know, 60 to 65, that range of people you know you can be paying quite a bit for marketplace. But again, when comparing it to the IRMA charges later without a Roth conversion, it's significant and it makes sense to pay that up front.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Brooke. What's the guy's name in the bottom B-CAM? What's his name?

Brooke Fay:

B-CAM-K.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

B-CAM-K. Again, you forgot to take into account gravity. No, we understand. What did he say. He says one thing that must be taken into consideration is a loss of income from the funds used to pay the taxes early, versus spread out over a 30-plus year time frame. Thank you, bcamk, for that enlightenment. Last question that 60-year-olds have about Roth conversions.

Brooke Fay:

What if the government decides to tax Roth IRAs in the future?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, so this is something I mean we've seen in the recent past. Obviously, no one can predict government policy. There's just no way that we can do that, but it is a valid question. I think in the past, though, the government's proven that if they change something like this, typically they will grandfather in the old rules. So if you have a Roth account, potentially they could say those are grandfathered in and going forward, we're going to do X, y, z to Roth accounts, and we've seen this, you know, with social security in the past, where you know certain ages have changed but everybody that's already collecting is grandfathered in. So if you're asking me, I would say that that's the most likely scenario.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I would agree.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I don't see. First of all, I don't like what ifs, because we can't. What if everything? What if the world blows up? How does this change my financial plan?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, exactly.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

But it's a good question and we get it a lot.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

And I think it's more likely that they wouldn't tax Roth IRAs. Maybe they would just get rid of them altogether. I mean, how would they even go about doing that? So I don't know.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I mean, we've seen it in 250 years of the history of this country. We're always changing laws. We will continue to change laws. Andrea brings up the best point for Roth conversions is that some administrations have threatened to get rid of the Roth conversions. Nobody has ever threatened to say if you've already gone through that door, remember. Roth conversion is getting through the door. Once you're through the door, you're done paying taxes If you've already gone through the door. This applies to people who weren't smart enough to go through the door the first time, because it's such a tax advantage You're saving a million dollars. Of course they want to get rid of it. Here's the thing. The United States has a history of never backing down on their word. They might change the rules going forward, but everyone is grandfathered in. You use Social Security great example.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, we've seen this in a couple different scenarios. Like the RMDH has changed, but it stayed the same for current people.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

The people who already went through the door. I mean, I would argue that if you haven't done Roth, rmda just changed, but it stayed the same for current people, people who already went through the door.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I mean, I would argue that if you haven't done Roth conversion or don't have a Roth IRA, maybe you should, before they change the rules.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Absolutely. This is one of the biggest points for getting this done. As I said sooner than later. Now the best example, though I used it the other day there was a weird tax law when Bush was president. There was a weird tax law when Bush was president, so he had it set. He, his party had it set so that in 2010 there was zero estate taxes. Okay, today the estate taxes can be as high as like 50 some percent. If you died in 2010, you're dead. Would you call that lucky? If you died in 2010 and you were a billionaire, your estate tax bill was essentially yeah, okay.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Now here we are in good old 2025. The United States does not change the law that says we're going to go back to the family whose dad or dad died in 2010 and charge him estate taxes. No, the rules were the rules were the rules. So that's my answer to the question, and I guess Emma said the most important thing we're not predicting the future.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

We don't know. There's no way, no one can.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, okay. So anything else to add to this Brooke, anything else to add to this podcast? Anything else to add to this Brooke, anything else to add to this podcast? Nope, okay, let me just say that we did make one mistake on the thumbnail that we did not address today.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, people pointed it out many times for us too. We made a thumbnail that says Roth rules are changing. They are not changing as far as we know are changing. They are not changing as far as we know. But the point of the video was that the effectiveness of the Roth conversion is certainly in jeopardy of decreasing in the future, and so if you go back and watch that video, it's very clear to me and I think I can pat myself on the back. I think we did an amazing job of showing why people are not seeing this, why advisors are not seeing this. The debt issue in this country was real. That was my main body of work this year was the United States debt and its impact on our economy and long-term future.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And one of the things that comes up is this Roth conversion, which I've said for at least 10 years Roth conversions are the biggest financial opportunity for a generation of savers. I feel strongly about that. I'm a CPA, that is my belief, and it's possibly not going away, but being greatly reduced because of the United States debt problem. So if you haven't watched the video, I strongly encourage you to watch the video because, let's just be honest, brooke, it was great.

Brooke Fay:

I don't think the thumbnail was a mistake. I think I'd say it got everyone's attention.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

It did get people to click on it, I suppose. But that is episode 37 in the books. This has been a great adventure, oppositely of some of the other things I've been doing lately. Can I just say one more thing? Do you remember our very first podcast? How many subscribers I wanted on YouTube?

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, you wanted a million, I wanted a million subscribers on YouTube.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

We're getting there.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I mean our first podcast. We were like at 37 subscribers on YouTube.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Mm-hmm.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

What did we eclipse this weekend?

Brooke Fay:

10,000 subscribers.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Authentic videos from the Sear Financial Clan. Aren't you guys excited?

Brooke Fay:

I am yeah, of course.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Do you want me to keep on talking about this?

Brooke Fay:

I think we can wrap up.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, that's the end of podcast episode 37 for Retirement for Life. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. See you on the next one, take care.

Outro:

Investment advisory services provided by Sear Financial Inc. Sec registered investment advisor. All content on this podcast is for information purposes only and should not be considered investment, legal or tax advice. Material presented is believed to be from reliable sources and no representations are made by our firm as to another party's informational accuracy or completeness.

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Christian J. Cyr, CPA, CFP®

Host
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Andrea Brannon

Co-host
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Emma Bean, CFA

Co-host