A calculator that shows its work.

Why this site exists

Most retirement calculators answer a one-year question: what does this conversion cost in April? A conversion ladder is not a one-year question. Each conversion starts its own five-year seasoning clock, the clocks run in parallel, and the plan usually fails on cash flow — the taxable money that funds the wait — long before it fails on tax rates.

There are excellent spreadsheets that model this, and building one is a genuinely useful exercise. But a spreadsheet is hard to share, hard to check, and easy to get subtly wrong in a way that looks right. This site is the version that draws the clocks, prices the real marginal rate including forfeited ACA premium tax credits, and shows every formula it used.

Who is behind it

An independent, self-funded project — one developer, not a firm. Nobody here is a CPA, an enrolled agent, a licensed tax preparer, or a financial adviser, and nothing on this site is personalized advice. What the project can offer instead is a model built directly against published statutory figures, with every input, formula, and source written out on themethodology page so the output can be verified rather than trusted.

How it is paid for

This site is free to use — there is no subscription, no account, no paywall, no sponsored editorial content, no affiliate kickbacks from financial brokers or advisers, and no email marketing list. Nothing on this site is ranked or worded to earn a referral.

To help offset server hosting and domain costs, the site displays standard banner ads through Google AdSense and uses Google Analytics to see which guides people read. Neither service receives any financial figures or scenarios you enter into the calculators — the calculation engine runs entirely on your device. Theprivacy policy explains these third-party services, cookie usage, and how to control your ad and privacy settings.

Rules this site holds itself to

• Every number traces to a source. Brackets, standard deductions, poverty guidelines, and applicable-percentage bands are cited, and the tables on the methodology page are generated from the same configuration the engine calculates with — so the documentation cannot drift from the math.
• Your figures stay on your device. The whole calculation runs in your browser. There is no server to receive your inputs. See theprivacy policy.
• Omissions are stated, not hidden. State income tax, the 0% long-term capital gains interaction, and Medicare IRMAA are all excluded, and each is named plainly on thedisclaimer rather than left for you to discover.
• Uncertainty is labeled. Where a figure is an estimate — benchmark Silver premiums, for instance — the interface says so instead of presenting it as fact.

What it will never be

It will not sell your data. The figures you enter never reach me in the first place, and the analytics that does exist is aggregate page-view counting that identifies nobody. It will not become a lead-generation funnel for advisers. And it will not tell you whether to convert — that decision depends on your whole return, your state, and your plans, none of which this tool can see.

Not a substitute for a professional

A Roth conversion is irreversible — recharacterization was eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — so an error cannot be undone the following April. Use this to understand the mechanics and to arrive at a professional's office with better questions. Then verify anything you act on with a CPA or a fee-only financial planner who can see your entire situation.

Reach me at admin@therothladder.com.