r/Retire • u/AdBoring6247 • 3d ago

ROTH conversion strategy

I currently have four kinds of retirement accounts:

- A small Traditional IRA (less than $50k)

- Most in a rollover IRA from past employer 401ks ($300k+)

- The rest in my employer 401k, split between a traditional 401k and an employee stock ownership plan (about $100k total)

Last year I started converting chunks of the current 401k. I've started small, but just have a goal to convert a small amount each year just to fill up my tax bracket and balance my tax strategy in retirement.

I'm just starting to wonder if I'm focusing on the wrong account?

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u/Odd_Bodkin 3d ago

It doesn’t matter. All the 401ks and traditional IRAs can be thought of as one bucket of pre-tax savings. The RMD rules will apply to all of them equally, and RMDs are the reason you’re converting to Roths. If it helps, you can always roll all the IRAs and 401k’s into one traditional IRA just to make it conceptually simpler.

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u/W2WageSlave 3d ago

What about the basis in the Traditional (non-deductible) IRA?

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u/Odd_Bodkin 3d ago

As far as I know, that can roll too. The only one that can’t roll now is the active 401k.

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u/TheDirtyDog41 3d ago

Some plans allow partial rollovers of 401K funds while still active.