Need some help here, guys and gals. My income is too high for a deductible IRA. I'm maxing out my pre-tax 401k and using the mega backdoor on after tax 401k contributions up to the 54k limit. Then I've been moving to a taxable account. I haven't put anything into a non-deductible IRA, ever, but reading this through I'm thinking I should be doing that too and using a backdoor roth conversion to get that into my Roth IRA too. Thoughts? Isn't the backdoor and mega back door basically doing the same thing for me in my case? Are there any limits or things I need to consider if using both those options in the same year? To clarify---does that 54k limit for 2017 include the IRA? If that's the case I'm guessing I was right to move to taxable, if not, I'm not so sure...
I'm shooting for 75k/yr after tax income in retirement, so I'm not expecting super low or nonexistent federal taxes. Maybe that extra 5k is better off going into a taxable account because 1) both are after tax investments, 2) long term cap gains rate and my fire rate seem like they might be roughly similar, and 3) normal taxable account has no restrictions around withdrawals. That 3rd point, my taxable account, was my plan for covering a good part of my expenses for the years between 'retiring' and reaching 59.5 yrs old. Help!
