Sometimes, especially in the āseniorā years, I think decisions about living situations should be based on what the person(s) want for quality of life, not on which is the best financial sense. Love your home? If you can afford help where you need it, then stay. Love the idea of moving either in your same neighborhood or town and renting, if you can afford the rental fees, do it. Want to pick up and leave and join others - or not join others - and pick a completely new city? If you can afford it, do it.
While a bank account can = happiness, day to day happiness should be a priority when you enter later decades.
There is not one recipe. Sometimes I think we need to say āyesā to daily happiness (that we can afford) and say ānot worriedā to the checkbook balance we will one day leave behind.
You need income to contribute to a Roth, but not to roll over from a traditional 401k or IRA to a Roth.
You might also want to roll the balance of the 401k into a traditional IRA, the fees are generally non-existent for IRAs and you have way more investment choices.
I see families that are buying now are getting into what they can afford. Friendās DD/SIL/twin boys are in a home where the master ensuite is in the basement level; the guest room is near the boysā bedroom. If one or both of the kids were sick, I would use the guest room to be on the same level as needed. Otherwise, they have/use the baby monitor.
Some parents do want to be on the same level as their kids. Our master is down the hall from the other upstairs bedrooms, but it is on the second level, with one guest bedroom on the main level.
This is reason number 9,999 that I want to downsize once the youngest is fully launched.
This happened 30 minutes before I was taking my lovely wife out for her birthday dinner. No major damage. Just a big headache and lots of work the next day.
Well, actually my 401k is an IRA - I moved it to Vanguard after retiring and itās doing very well.
Regarding the Roth - if you donāt have a Roth already, can you open a Roth by rolling over from my IRA or from my husbands 401k (he still works) - neither of us have an existing Roth. If you canāt open one with a rollover, since heās retiring at the end of the year, can he open a Roth now so he can rollover from 401k after he retires at end of year? Sorry if I totally confused you.
You may want to open the Roth now in order to start the five year clock. See link below.
You can convert your current IRA funds into Roth IRA funds at any time. You just want to be aware of the tax implications as the conversion is treated as if you had earned the income in the year in which you convert. So look at your State and federal marginal tax brackets, considering all sources of income.
You also want to consider IRMAA impacts if you are 63 or older.
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/retirement/roth-ira-5-year-rule
Thank you!
@basket, I agree, with the proviso that the plans need to make practical sense even if not financial sense. MILās plans have not yet actually given the coverage that she needs given her age and propensity for falling (sheās fallen twice the same way at her house, once at ours, and I think a few other times). But, she is a) introverted; and b) once she recovers from the shock of falling, she will once again think that she is independent.
Another article on living arrangements when one ages.
I think @shawbridge brings up a good point.
Iām all for having your own agency, deciding what you want to do as you age
But at what point will you decide that itās not safe anymore? Will you be in denial that things are better than it is?
I see my parent and my in-laws and I wonder if when that time comes, will I be able to make a decision thatās best for me? That will spare my children?
Because Iām certain for shawwife, seeing her mother on the floor and thinking about what might have happened had she not shown up when she did is a very scary thought.
One Iād rather my children donāt have to go through.
This discussion may be better served in another thread but I had thoughts 
As a follow up to my post a few above, Iāll
also add that Iām taking about the āgo-goā
Years as referred to on CC not the āno-goā
Years.
I think society tends to drop everyone 60+into a āsenior potā no matter the age.
At 65 I would prefer to think of myself as a human and not a āseniorā. Of course Iām looking forward but I also donāt want to spend so much time looking forward that Iām not living NOW.
Got you. I heard a financial planner talk about the go-go, the slow-go and then the no-go years. For the go-go years, I am thrilled to be living where I am living, but I was thinking about the slow-go and especially the no-go years.
My MIL is in the no-go years. She has always been engaged in magical thinking, but as @deb922 points out, the impact of magical thinking in the no-go years places significant burdens on her children (and if no one were showing up that day, it is not inconceivable that she would have passed away).
Iām trying to think through to the slow-go and no-go years to see if our current plan works (short of some kind of massive injury or illness). Iām also updating my healthcare proxy to deal with the cases in which: 1) Iām fully mentally functional but canāt communicate because my body is dysfunctional; 2) in which Iām fully or partially physically functional but not mentally functional. Iād rather not be around in either of those two cases.
If something happens to my husband, the very last thing I want to become is the person who hires folks to do the work. Iād rather not have the workā¦likely will sell this too big already house and move to a smaller place in a community where someone else at least does all the yard work, and snow removal. Renting definitely has its advantages. Many of the newer apartments are within close walking distance of just about anything one would need. The idea of cutting down on needing to drive is appealing too.
But right nowā¦we are in this houseā¦and DD told me last week that she doesnāt want us to move because she really likes being able to visit and go to our lake!
One FA we interviewed pointed out that as long as clients can afford to stay in their house and enjoy itā¦ they should stay. He advises the time to consider selling is when you pull up to the garage with the Aha Moment - āI just donāt want to deal with this house anymoreā. (Of course decision making is easiest when both spouses agree.)
I am the house and yard labor - so I have a lawn service. But weeding, gardening, trimming - thatās all me. Dog walking, shopping, cooking, cleaning - thatās also me. Maybe we should move!
Our across the street neighbor lost half a tree during the storms this weekend (they werenāt home). DH and our next door neighbor were both out during a break in the weather with chainsaws to cut the tree piece into manageable pieces and dragged them out of the road (the limbs were blocking over half the street).
So many tree limbs broken this past weekend.
Oh my husband would have jumped into that action with his chainsaw collection! It is one of his favorite activitiesā¦ 
naturally, he is running out of things to cut in our yard. We might need a bigger forest when he retiresā¦ sigh.
We had a tree fall through our roof during Hurricane Sandy. Now in a new house, we are surrounded by trees. When we do the river bank restoration work, weāll cut down some trees that have the potential to fall in our direction.
@sabaray, ShawWife was in charge of gardens (not lawns). This year, we hired a gardener. She tried to be in charge of pool cleaning but that didnāt work so we have someone for that now as well. Plus a guy who sprays organic stuff to drive away mosquitoes and ticks. Plus HVAC maintenance people. A cleaning person. A PT/personal trainer. Probably others. It takes a village, I guess.
I think that it might make sense, at some age, to hire a manager to be responsible for the house including dealing with the various folks ā gardening, plumbing, electricians, lawn-mowing, cleaning, etc.
Thank goodness someone else understands exactly what went down. 
There was even talk about how another chainsaw might need to be purchased because āyou need the right tool to do the right jobā.
If something happened to my DH, I would want to upkeep the house enough to plan on timetable for selling. It is something I can control. He mows the lawn, but it is a self-propelled and I can do it (and I have done it before). With life insurance proceedings, I could probably buy something for me by DD1/SIL/Gkids, and move what I want, get rid of other things more easily.
DH has a lot of family longevity, but no one knows when their time will come.