A Roth conversion is the only move in personal finance where you volunteer to hand the IRS a five-figure check.
People do it anyway, because the pitch is irresistible: pay tax once, never again.
The pitch is also incomplete. The tax bill is certain, immediate and permanentsince 2018 you can't undo a conversion. The benefit is a projection about a tax code that doesn't exist yet.
That doesn't make conversions bad. It makes them a price question, not a religion:
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The question was never "is Roth better?" It's "what tax rate am I willing to pay to buy it?"
Let's price it properly. 👇