When first starting out, the Roth is always a better deal. However, when thinking of converting from a conventional IRA to a Roth, it becomes much more difficult to determine the correct path. Just like life in general.

Personally I think the key to life is being debt free (I'm not because of house debt but working on it). If I had a bunch of money to put in a Roth I'd make sure I didn't have any credit cards or car loans first (then stay that way and don't rack them up again). I'd also pay off any debt that had a variable interest rate like HELOCs considering the Qe that is going on the $$ will be worth about half in the not so distant future compared to the beginning of the century. You will not want to get stuck with anything that has a variable rate when massive inflation takes hold. If your house has an arm get the lowest fixed rate you possibly can now while they are at record lows and the asset should appreciate with inflation as long as the economy doesn't completely tank. Then continue to hammer away at that home debt. Remember that FedEx puts 7% of your earnings in a retirement account regardless of what you contribute to your 401K ($500 match only). This is no small chunk of change especially if you reach the point where the sick bank money goes in as well. Hopefully we continue to be a healthy company well into the future and the 2%x25 A Plan remains intact for our retirements. If not it will be the fact of having no debt when you retire that will allow you to live comfortably with a smaller (or larger) nest egg and that will allow you to pull money out of a taxable IRA at a reduced rate putting you into a lower tax bracket certain years if you desire. Final note: don't take financial advise from a pilot ;-)

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Not really true because of the Required Minimum Distribution that's associated with all traditional IRA's, which require you to make calculated withdrawals on an annual basis, once you reach (I believe) 70&1/2 years old. So in effect, depending on how large your IRA has grown to, you could actually find yourself in a situation where your taxable income could be higher than it was when you were actually working, thereby increasing your tax bracket, and of course then increasing the taxes you pay.

That's another reason for starting out with a Roth IRA, because (again, I believe) you aren't hindered by having to ever withdraw funds, if you don't want to, and if you do withdraw, it's tax free, both for you as well as your heirs. A real cool deal.

The best way to retire comfortably is to: 1) stay married to the same spouse (no matter how much it hurts:D; 2) regardless of what house you own, pay off the mortgage as quickly as you're able; 3) eliminate all other debt, starting with credit card debt, then going on to student loans, etc, etc, until you're completely debt free; 4) Unless you're living hand-to-mouth, make sure that each and every month you pay yourself first... that's to say you should be saving as much as you can by contributing to your company's 401K plan, using payroll deduction, so you don't miss those monies; 5) Review your financial situation every 5 or 6 months, making sure that you're invested in a way that allows for some growth as well as preservation of assets, but that also allows you to be able to sleep at night; 6) If an investment sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you are a FDX Widebody Captain making 250K+/yr. and are debt free at retirement with about 1.5M in your Vanguard account at age 65 with 130K/yr - (spousal annuity fees) coming in for life from the A plan. I am not sure the amount, but I would guess you would not be forced to take out an additional 130K/year from your tax differed retirement putting you in the same tax bracket you were in when you retired. Let me know if I'm wrong, but the max you can even contribute to a tax differed retirement per year is somewhere in the mid 40K range. Not to mention that you are probably in the highest tax bracket anyway, and it is very likely that it will only go up with how broke the government is right now putting you in an even higher tax bracket when you retire with the same income level. Not much control over that anyway however I think we agree that if you are dangling around a bunch of frivolous debt deal with that first.

You can wait until 70.5 before taking an RMD.

Dude ... with solid advice like that, will you please be my personal financial planner. :D

Remember Never take financial advise from a pilot!

Good thinking... I'm sure you are more comfortable hearing from your advisor, "go all in, it's a sure thing", "trust me, I've good information", etc. ;)

And don't forget this priceless jewel of wisdom from your financial adviser (when your portfolio has dropped 70%) "Let's stay the course, things will turnaround." Yeah, right.