Originally Posted by Jetjok

It seems to me that the beauty of a Roth IRA is that when you actually start withdrawing monies from it, they are all tax-free. Not just the money you put in along the way, but any growth your fund may have experienced. That is the real advantage. You pay NO tax on any withdrawals. As well, you don't have to start withdrawing your money when you reach 70 & 1/2, which you do with a conventional IRA. As well, I believe that you can pass the entire Roth IRA to your children, and they too won't have to pay any tax when they withdraw funds.

While a Roth seems like a no-brainer, which it really is, if you're heavily invested in a conventional IRA, it will cost you a good amount of money to convert the conventional IRA to a Roth, because you have to pay all the tax, or capital gains your funds have made, since your initial investment. So if you're at the beginning of your career, put as much as you can afford into a Roth, but if you're at the middle or getting toward the end, you might be better off just leaving your money in the conventional IRA. However, you need to realize that taxes will probably go up (to pay for everything our government is spending money on) and so taking a long, hard look at paying the tax and moving to a Roth might be the way to go. Just my opinion.

JJ