Guide to Roth IRA, 401k and 403b Retirement Accounts

Free online guide

 

Welcome to our free online guide to Roth IRAs and Roth accounts in 401k and 403b plans.

For many of us, Roth accounts offer advantages over traditional IRA and 401k accounts. They can be more flexible and more tax-efficient, permitting you to create and preserve more retirement wealth. This free online guide offers help in understanding how to choose the type of account that's best for you, and explains special rules that apply to Roth accounts: contributions, conversions, recharacterizations and distributions. A topical index of the pages in this guide appears below.

Need a book? For a complete, plain language explanation of Roth accounts, see our bestselling book Go Roth!

Feature Articles

  • Isolating Basis for a Roth Conversion
    If you have after-tax dollars in your IRA or 401k account, you might wonder if there's a way to isolate those dollars so they can be converted to a Roth IRA, tax-free. Simply moving the after-tax dollars to a Roth won't work, but there are strategies that may do the trick.
  • Recharacterization Blues
    You can use a recharacterization to undo a conversion, but the results aren't always what you might expect.

What Hath Roth Wrought

To Roth or Not to Roth

Getting Money In

Contributions

Conversions

Recharacterizations

Managing Your Account

Go Roth!, our book on this topic, contains extensive guidance on investing and other aspects of managing a retirement account, but these portions of the book are not reflected in this online guide at this time.

Taking Money Out

Roth 401k and 403b

Understanding the Roth 401k/403b

Rules for Roth 401k/403b