Key Takeaways
Money can’t stay in an IRA or 401(k) forever. Your required beginning date, or RBD, is when you have to start taking the funds out and paying the tax. Thanks to Secure 2.0, the age for required minimum distributions is now 73, but it was 72.
You may have a larger RMD compared with the size of your IRA balance, but it’s the right amount because it’s based on last year’s ending balance. You can’t change that amount.
Converting to Roth is a strategy for potentially reducing future RMDs. Roth conversions always cost more once you’re into RMDs. That doesn’t mean you can’t convert once you’re into RMDs, say after age 73, but it costs more.