Enjoying Retirement & Beyond

We began, as we do with most couples, by having each spouse complete the Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths exercise independently. Doing it separately matters — completed together, one person’s answers tend to shape the other’s.

Their answers diverged more than either expected. Michael’s centered on security and leaving a meaningful inheritance. Jennifer’s centered on time — specifically on travel while both were healthy enough to enjoy it.

Neither position was wrong, and neither had been stated plainly before. Much of the value of the exercise was simply getting both on the table in the same room.

The years between retiring and the start of required minimum distributions are frequently the lowest-bracket years of an entire lifetime. Earned income has stopped; required distributions have not yet begun; Social Security may not yet be claimed.

That window is finite and easy to waste. Filling the lower brackets with deliberate Roth conversions during those years reduces the size of future required distributions, lowers the tax on them, and leaves a more flexible asset for heirs.

We modeled a multi-year conversion schedule sized to bracket capacity each year, checked against Medicare premium thresholds, and coordinated with their Social Security claiming decision — which we modeled jointly rather than individually, since the survivor benefit outlasts both claiming choices.