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.
Our book: Go Roth! (now available in a 2019 edition) provides a complete, authoritative, plain language explanation of rules and strategies for all types of Roth accounts.
What Hath Roth Wrought
Introductory material about Roth retirement accounts.
To Roth or Not to Roth
Pages dealing with the choice between traditional retirement accounts and Roth accounts.
Contributions to Roth Accounts
Full explanation of the contribution rules.
Roth Conversions
Converting a traditional retirement account to a Roth account.
Recharacterizations
These rules allow you to change certain steps you took earlier.
Managing Your Retirement Account
Steps to take during the lifetime of the account.
Roth Distributions
The final stage in the life cycle of a Roth account.
Designated Roth Accounts
These are Roth accounts in 401k and similar plans, including  403b and 457b plans as well as the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan.