Building up a Roth nest egg can pay off in spades for retirees. Money in a Roth IRA grows tax-free, and the account doesn't have required minimum distributions--so you withdraw the money only when you need it. Withdrawals are also tax-free, so they don't trigger other consequences. Roth withdrawals don't count in the calculations for taxing Social Security benefits or determining Medicare premium surcharges, for instance. Roths "give retirees a lot of flexibility," says Gil Charney, director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, "and some control over their tax liability."

But there isn't just one route to getting money into a Roth. You can take a variety of paths to reach tax-free nirvana--some more well-known than others. We'll provide you the map, so you can choose which routes might best serve your situation.

Roths and Taxes, Part 1

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No matter which route you choose, consider how your current tax rate stacks up against your expected future tax rate. After all, the toll for getting tax-free withdrawals later is to forgo a tax deduction on your IRA contributions today. So you need to weigh whether your current tax rate is lower than it's likely to be in the future. "There is no deduction when you contribute, but you're not taxed when money is distributed," says Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting. If you think your tax rate is higher now, then you might