What is the best advice for switching my regular IRA to a Roth IRA?

Considering the current price of stocks, isn' t this the best time(2008)to switch to a Roth IRA so that I can reduce my regular IRA minimum required distribution, in order to pay less income tax in the coming years? I am 73yrs oldWhat is the best advice for switching my regular IRA to a Roth IRA?
Convertng to a ROTH does not mean that you must invest in stocks. That's an independent choice. You could do stocks... or CDs, or Treasury bills, etc. Whether to switch is more related to your tax and financial situation. It coud be a great decision, or a poor decision. It just depends on your situation.What is the best advice for switching my regular IRA to a Roth IRA?
Possibly.





I'd suggest to just keep taking out as much from the traditional IRA as possible until you hit the first tax bracket and then take out of the Roth any more you need.





May be the fed will do something crazy and reduce taxes on traditional ira distributions to help the middle class if recession hits. I mean, Roth's arn't supposed to exist much longer but odds are they will either extend them or make them permanent anyways. Unless your Roth wont last long I'd say wait for more favorable tax laws to make large pulls from the traditional.





Well, I'm 28 so i got 20-30 years. This may be swaying my opinion.
In theory, yes.





But I'd carefully look at your overall finances as moving a huge amount of money will trigger income tax. I would only suggest estimating your taxes several times with different amounts and only move out the 10% or 15% tax bracket's worth.





You must still be filing either single or MFJ, not MFS.


Your income must be less than $100K.


You cannot roll over your minimum required distribution for the year. (The conversion will reduce the amount remaining in the account and will reduce the 2009 mrda).