As of yesterday, I have left my full-time employment position where I have about $60k in the company 401(k). I'm taking some travel time for the next couple months, and then will be starting self-employment contracting with the same company - but there's no 401(k) benefit in my contract, of course. I have an existing T-IRA as well as a Roth IRA, because my previous annual income ($135k) excluded me from tax-deductible IRA contributions and I have been doing the backdoor traditional->Roth conversions for tax-free growth, at least. By the end of the year, I anticipate my annual salary will work to have been $90k or so (Jan-Jul full-time gross is $77k, plus the remaining part-time work for the last three months of the year).
I can move my current 401(k) balance to either the T-IRA or the Roth, but I don't think I want to move it to the Roth as I understand I'll have to pay taxes on the balance. I have already contributed $5500 to the T-IRA (and performed the backdoor conversion to the Roth) for 2015; can I still convert the 401(k) to the T-IRA? If yes, should I then backdoor-convert that to the Roth? Oh, and the current 401(k) provider is not very good, so I don't want to bother leaving it with them.
For next year, I think I should open either a SEP or an individual 401(k). It seems I could contribute more to the individual 401(k), if I were making a lot of money, but I don't anticipate my self-employment income to be more than $50-60k or so at best. Is one of these options better than the other? Should I still work on the T-IRA and Roth IRA or does one of these exclude that option?
I know I have some options here so I'm looking for some help in clarifying the best course for the rest of this year, and into the next as a self-employed consultant. Thanks so much for reading!