RIPE TIME TO ROTH

Between Trump’s temporary tax cuts and the stock market’s downswings, now could be the time to do a Roth conversion.

When Congress created Roth Individual Retirement Accounts, lawyer and CPA Jim Lange saw two ways he could personally profit. First, he decided to become an expert on the “conversion” of traditional IRAs to Roths, which he deemed “the best thing since

sliced bread.” Second, a fire that broke out in the pizza parlor below his Pittsburgh office had left him with a big casualty loss and a low enough income that he himself could do a conversion in 1998, the first year the move was allowed. (Originally you had to have income below $100,000 to be eligible.) Lange and his wife, Cindy,

then both in their early 40s, converted their traditional IRAs— $239,000 in all— into Roths. “If I’m wrong, I’m going down with you,’’ Lange told his clients.

Truth is, it takes a strong stomach to do a conversion, particularly when you’ve spent years looking for ways to delay paying taxes. When you convert, you ac-

Long-distance planner: Jim Lange aims to ride his bike 40 miles a day in Tucson and to let his Roth IRA grow tax-free for decades.