tax implications in retirement

[shorttimer]

I have been searching through the money topics, but I have a couple of questions involving taxes when you do retire.
We have tried to position ourselves the best we knew how, paying attention to asset allocation, fees on investments, being debt free etc

What we need to consider now is that we are early 50's and a large portion of our money is tax deferred. I am trying to sort out the info on taxes when you receive social security, and decide on a strategy to convert some of our tax deferred money to Roth's to spread out the tax bite to our advantage. I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes as I have no desire to live anywhere else but the USA, but don't want to be stupid. We are still working, but our exit from the workforce will be complete in the next few years, right now we are just putting a little more icing on the cake.
Can anyone point me to resources to try to figure this out or share some of their musings?

Thanks, I am amazed at all the things that I have learned here that you have to consider in order to really be able to retire successfully.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

There are a number of calculators that can help with the recharacterization dillema. Some are better than others.

Go to www.vanguard.com and search for "roth conversion". You'll get some white papers and a calculator or two thats not too bad.

 

[shorttimer]

thanks. I'll head over there and see what I can do.

 

[Martha]

You might also look at the Fairmark website calculators. http://www.fairmark.com/rothira/decide.htm