High Earners: Stop Making This Roth vs. Traditional Tax Mistake!
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight addresses one of the most common questions he gets: “If tax rates are going to be dramatically higher in the future, shouldn’t I be putting every dollar into a Roth 401(k)?”. Moreover, people often wonder whether they should be converting as much of their IRA to Roth as quickly as possible. David is a firm believer that the current tax rates are as low as we’re likely to see in our lifetime. The U.S. has over $39 trillion in debt and it’s going to increase by two trillion per year over the next 10 years and over $200 trillion in unfunded obligations for Social...
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What REALLY Happens When Your Kids Inherit Your IRA
The Power Of Zero Show
In today’s episode, David McKnight discusses what many people don’t get about the IRS and what happens to their IRA and what their children are supposed to get at some point. Many people spend decades building up tax-affirmed retirement accounts without fully appreciating what happens when those accounts pass to the next generation. When a spouse inherits an IRA, they get the most favorable treatment under the tax code. In fact, they have options that nobody else gets - like the spousal rollover. David touches upon the so-called Stretch IRA, which he considers one of the greatest estate...
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The Hidden Reason Married Couples Need Roth Conversions
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight kicks off this Power of Zero Show episode by stressing that, in his opinion, tax rates in the future are likely to be much higher than they are today. Why? Because the U.S. has a national debt that continues to grow at an alarming rate. It has hundreds of trillions of dollars in unfunded obligations for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. At some point, the Government is going to need huge infusions of cash to meet such obligations. The so-called “Widow’s Penalty” is a very compelling reason, David believes, to consider doing Roth conversions while...
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Did Suze Orman Just Endorse Annuities?
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight discusses the Woman’s World article Suze Orman Reveals When to Buy an Annuity - and the One Question You Must Answer First. For years, Orman has warned investors away from annuities, often lumping them into the category of expensive financial products that enrich salespeople at the expense of consumers. David has been surprised by what the current views of Orman appear to be, completely in line with what David has been preaching for years. Orman’s analysis begins with a key consideration: annuities can be a helpful tool in retirement, but whether they make sense for you...
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The Truth About Buy-and-Hold Investing in Retirement
The Power Of Zero Show
In this episode, David McKnight addresses one of the biggest myths in retirement planning: once you retire, you need to dramatically reduce your exposure to stocks. The reason why most financial advisors recommend reducing stock exposure in retirement has very little to do with stocks and everything to do with sequence of returns risk. Sequence of returns risk is what happens when you’re forced to withdraw money from your investment portfolio during a market downturn. If the market falls 30% and you’re simultaneously taking withdrawals to pay for your living expenses, you’re locking in...
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The New Case Against Bonds in Retirement
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight kicks this episode off by explaining how, for decades, conventional financial wisdom has been saying that, as you approach retirement, you should begin dialing down your stock exposure and increasing your bond allocation. A 60-year-old, for example, would have 40% of their portfolio in stocks and 60% in bonds. Historically, bonds served three primary functions: They provided income, they reduced portfolio volatility, and they protected retirees from so-called sequence of returns risk. David touches upon how the sequence of returns risk works. Retirees who get hit early...
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This Small Trick Could Increase Your Retirement Income by 22%
The Power Of Zero Show
A recent landmark study from BlackRock caught David McKnight – he shares what it was all about and why you should care in this new episode of the Power of Zero Show. For decades, Americans were told that if they simply contributed faithfully to their 401(k) and avoided emotional decisions during market downturns, they would have enough money in retirement. According to the BlackRock study, retirees who incorporated guaranteed lifetime income in the form of an annuity into their retirement portfolio experienced an average increase of 22% in potential retirement spending. That number became...
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Should I Do a Roth Conversion in my 60s?
The Power Of Zero Show
Today’s episode of The Power of Zero Show revolves around a question host David McKnight gets asked all the time: “Should I still be doing Roth conversions in my 60s, even if I’m already retired?” In short, David believes that you should not only do a Roth conversion in your 60s, it’s actually one of the most optimal times in your entire life to do it. When doing a Roth conversion, you’re choosing to pay the IRS its portion of your IRA now, on your terms, instead of paying it a much larger portion later, on their terms. That’s why Roth conversions don’t only make sense for...
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The 5 Most Common Objections to Roth Conversions (and Why They’re Wrong)
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight unpacks the five most common objections to Roth conversions and why they simply don’t hold up under scrutiny. The first objection has to do with people not wanting to voluntarily pay taxes before the IRS requires them to. While on the surface, postponing this may sound logical, it ignores a fundamental aspect: the state of the U.S. national debt. It has just passed $39 trillion, and it’s slated to grow by $2 trillion per year for the next 10 years, and $3 trillion after that. In other words, interest on the national debt is becoming one of the largest line items in the...
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How Roth Conversions Affect Social Security Taxes and IRMAA
The Power Of Zero Show
David McKnight dissects a topic that causes a lot of confusion for retirees and pre-retirees: How Roth conversions affect social security taxation and Medicare premiums (IRMAA). Some warn against Roth conversions in retirement as they can cause your Social Security to become taxable and could also raise your Medicare premiums. While that’s true, David believes that the long-term benefits of Roth conversions can far outweigh the temporary, short-term pain they can cause. In order to determine whether your Social Security benefits will be taxed, the IRS tracks the so-called provisional...
info_outlineThis episode revolves around President Donald Trump’s claim that, due to the massive tsunami of tariff revenue that’s flowing into the U.S. coffers, Americans won’t have to pay income tax in 2026.
David McKnight looks at the 2025 fiscal year: the Federal Government spent about $7 trillion and brought in about $5 and a quarter trillion in revenue.
While breaking down the math related to the 2025 fiscal year, David points out that “Revenue from income taxes is the single largest source of Federal revenue”, while “Tariffs, by contrast, are one of the smallest.”
Even Trump’s own economic team, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has said that in an extremely optimistic scenario, tariff revenue might someday reach $500 billion a year – which is only about ⅕ of what gets collected in income taxes.
By looking at the numbers, it’s clear that the proposed tariff-funded $2,000 check for each of the 340 million Americans wouldn’t work: it would cost roughly $680 billion against a tariff revenue that only amounts to $195 billion…
David clarifies a key point about tariffs. They’re not paid by foreign governments, they’re paid by U.S. importers. In other words, tariffs are simply a tax on consumers.
There’s an additional problem that shouldn’t be overlooked. Not only do tariffs not generate enough revenue, but they can also lead to retaliation by other countries imposing their own tariffs on American exports.
This means that an American effort to try to raise trillions of dollars through tariffs could end up costing heavily on its own people.
David is crystal clear: While these types of claims make for great sound bites, the federal budget still has to obey the mathematical laws of the universe, and the math makes it clear: There’s no world in which tariffs could ever eliminate the need for an income tax.
By the look of things, the U.S. is marching into a future where the federal government will soon need huge infusions of cash just to pay the interest on its exploding national debt.
To forestall this, the U.S. government will have to double federal income taxes in or around 2035.
That’s why, David says, having a dialed-in strategy to get your retirement savings shifted from 401(k)s and IRAs to Roths is more important than ever.
Mentioned in this episode:
David’s new book, available now for pre-order: The Secret Order of Millionaires
David’s national bestselling book: The Guru Gap: How America’s Financial Gurus Are Leading You Astray, and How to Get Back on Track
Tax-Free Income for Life: A Step-by-Step Plan for a Secure Retirement by David McKnight
PowerOfZero.com (free video series)
@mcknightandco on Twitter
@davidcmcknight on Instagram
David McKnight on YouTube
Get David's Tax-free Tool Kit at taxfreetoolkit.com