patrick.net

Questions I have about opportunities, some Covid-related. :)

1) My parents were working last year (at a homeless shelter), and my mom, who was a Professor prior to this, found it too physically taxing and has since "retired" (although may return to teaching). Dad is still working there, and plans to until death, although the Covid-risk is high among that population, so ya never now.

1) Idea: take their stimulus check(s) plus some canceled "vacation to the west coast" cash and put it in a Roth. Given their employment situation, I can figure they could drop 7K each in for 2019, and 7K for my dad in 2020 for a total of 21k. I could gift them the difference.

1) Questions: Is that a crazy-ass idea? Would it harm future medicaid eligibility, if needed? Would I introduce taxes to myself if the money comes back to me, either as we withdrew, or through inherited IRA fine print? Would I get "double taxed" somehow?

2) Given the mods in the CARES act, can one get access to their 401k/IRAs penalty-free and put that money to use, only to repay it later (like in the 3+ years they allow). Especially pertinent to question 1, because there might be an opportunity for the folks to use their own IRA, fund the Roth, pay it back through the growth.

3) Given the drop in the market, is it a good time for some/all to do Roth conversion? I already do the backdoor Roths for me, but my wife has a former employer 401k I wouldn't mind improving upon. It would seem so with the drop in value and historically low taxes that are bound to go up.

Any other smart idears?